Two traditional college basketball powers, Kentucky and Ohio State, are set to trade blows when they matchup in Newark, N.J., in the 'Sweet-16' of the 2011 Men's NCAA Basketbal Tournament East Regionals Friday (9:45 pm ET). The Buckeyes entered the tournament as overall top-seeds while the SEC Tournament champs Wildcats were seeded 4th. Ohio State has been playing great basketball through the early rounds easily dispatching 16-seed Texas-San Antonio and 8-seed George Mason, while the Cats'defeated Princeton and West Virginia.
Oddsmakers at most off shore sports shops list Buckeyes as 5 1/2-chalk NCAA Point Spreads favorites for the game with a combined point total of 140. Wildcats' backers are getting +210 odds on the off shore money line while the price of a ML wager on Ohio State is -250. For bettors unfamiliar with ML format wagering; in order to win $100 wagering OSU to win SU, it requires a $250 wager. On the flip side, today's underdog, lined at +210 ML, wins $250 with a SU win.
Ohio State, along with Kansas, has the best SU record in college basketball this season at 34-2, while Kentucky is 27-8. Both the Buckeyes and Wildcats are looking to continue long winning streaks, OSU having won eight straight and UK seven. For the season, both squads have not been the best at covering point spreads, Kentucky going 14-14-2 and Ohio State 17-14-0.
Early betting trends, always good tools for making NCAA Basketball Picks , shows the public leaning the Buckeyes'way over in surprising fashion with 87 percent percent of side (ATS) action and 86 percent money line. Action on totals shows 87 percent betting the game score goes OVER the posted 140 points set by odds makers.
Over the last 10-game period, the Buckeyes have gone 9-1 SU and 7-3 ATS. In over/under totals betting, covering the same 10-game period, the combined game score went OVER seven times. Like Ohio State, the Wildcats have been playing hot basketball and having gone 9-1 SU over its previous 10 games while over/under betting has gone 4-5-1.
If this game were regular season, my NCAA Basketball Predictions would be easy. I would be choosing Ohio State because Kentucky was such a bad road team. For the most part, the Buckeyes held their own while on the road with only a couple of exceptions, and that is to be expected in BIG TEN play. My play for this game is to take the +5 points and the Wildcats, but I see the Buckeyes winning the game.
