It seems that throughout the 2011 men’s NCAA basketball season, Florida and BYU were two teams flying under the radar while fans were fixating on leagues that mattered most, ACC, Big East, Big 10 and Big 12. The SEC was labeled a down league along with the Pac 10 and what happened in the Mountain West really didn’t matter. On Thursday (7:15 PM Eastern), the Gators and Cougars match-up for the chance of advancing to the Southeast Regional Finals to vie for a place in the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four.
Odds makers at most off shore sports shops list the Gators as 3-chalk NCAA Point Spreads favorites for the game with a combined point total of 130. Cougars backers are getting +130 odds on the off shore money line while the price of a ML wager on Florida is -150. For bettors unfamiliar with ML format wagering; in order to win $100 betting on the Florida to win SU, it requires a $150 wager. On the flip side, today's underdog, lined at +130 ML, wins $130 with a SU win.
Betting trends, always good tools for making NCAA Basketball Picks ,show teams consistencies throughout the season. Florida won the SEC regular season championship before falling to Kentucky in the SEC Tournament Championship game and is currently 28-7 overall on the season including NCAA Tournament victories over UC-Santa Barbara and UCLA. Florida has probably been overlined this season as its 16-14 ATS record shows. The combined game score from Florida games this season went OVER in 18-of-30. The Gators have no record against a MWC opponent this year and are 0-1 versus the MWC the past three years.
BYU and San Diego State dominated the MWC this season, each finishing with a 14-2 MWC record. BYU lost to the Aztecs in the championship game of the MWC Tournament. The Cougars currently own a 32-4 overall record. The Cougars ATS record does not reflect its SU record. BYU has actually been bad for backers with a 15-17 ATS record. In totals over/under betting, the OVER has cashed in 17-of-31 lined games this year. In lined games over the past three years, BYU's record ATS is 51-46. As an underdog this season the Cougars are 2-1 ATS and 2-1 SU.
Making NCAA Basketball Predictions on this game is challenging but I'm going with the Gators to back up their seeding and win this game and cover -3.
