The West Regional of the 2011 Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament is down to 3-seeds Connecticut Huskies of the Big East and 5-seeds Arizona Wildcats of the Pac-10. These two schools will battle Saturday (7:05 pm) for the chance to advance to Houston as part of the Final-Four of the 'Big Dance.'
Odds makers at most off shore sports shops list the Huskies as 3-chalk College Basketball Point Spreads favorites against Arizona with a combined point total of 145 1/2. Wildcats' backers are getting +130 odds on the off shore money line while the ML price on UConn winning SU is -150. For bettors unfamiliar with ML format wagering; in order to win $100 betting UConn, the bet requires $150 down, and Florida must win. If the player wagers Butler to win SU, the pot is sweeter with a $130 pay-off on a $100 bet.
What makes it so difficult making College Basketball Picks in a bracket is we focus on who the media tells us is really good and don't look far beyond, unless you are a fan of a particular conference or school. We were told the Big East is superior to everybody else and the NCAA Tournament selection committee backed it up by inviting 11 schools from that league. We were told the Pac-10 is down, it was to an extent, so we didn't really pay much attention to Arizona. After all, Lute Olsen is no longer there. The Pac-10 sent 4 schools to the Dance and one of them, USC, was a play-in. The top of the Pac-10 was actually pretty good. The league just wasn't deep. In contrast, the Big East was extremely deep, as 11 invitees is proof of. UConn was the 9th place finisher in the league standings and got hot at the end winning its conference tournament. Had UConn not done that, they would have been a much lower seed if invited at all.
Early betting trends, always good tools for making NCAA Basketball Predictions , show the underdog Wildcats getting a majority of action both ATS, by 55% and money line (74%) while a 69% majority are wagering the game score goes OVER the posted 145 ½ total previously set by odds makers.
Both UConn and Arizona have similar won-lost records, 30-7 for the Huskies and 29-9 for the Wildcats. Both schools did well covering the betting spreads, UConn 21-11-0, and Arizona 19-15-1. The Huskies are riding a nice winning streak now at 8-games while Arizona has won three straight. The Pac-10 regular season champs lost in the Pac-10 tournament to Washington while UConn defeated Louisiville in the Big East Tournament. What impresses me about the Huskies is they dominated against the quality teams on their schedule from outside the Big East. UConn defeated Michigan State and Kentucky in November and in January travelled to Austin, Texas and defeated the Longhorns. When UConn turned on the switch, they ran the gauntlet of Georgetown, Pitt, Syracuse and Louisville to win the Big East Tournament Championship. To put it mildly, this team is hot and is my pick for this game. BEST BET – UConn -3.
