Pro handicappers Paul Stone and Bruce Marshall each went 12-5 against the spread (70.6 percent) and hit both of their best bets last season in the Review-Journal March Madness Challenge.
Stone won the NCAA Tournament contest on a national champion tiebreaker after correctly predicting UConn would win it all. Stone and Marshall are picking Florida to cut down the nets April 7 in San Antonio.
The Virginia Commonwealth-BYU under 147 is Stone’s best bet in the contest, but he’s equally high on Oregon (-7) over Liberty.
For many March Madness bettors, taking a No. 12 seed over a 5 is one of the opening round’s most popular wagers. But Stone likes the No. 5 Ducks to douse the No. 12 Flames by double digits in Friday’s late game in Seattle.
The game is scheduled to begin at 7:10 p.m. Pacific. In Lynchburg, Virginia, where Liberty is located, the game will start after 10 p.m. Eastern.
“I think it’s problematic for Liberty that the game is scheduled to tip off at 10:10 p.m. Eastern,” said Stone (@PaulStoneSports). “It’s a difficult body clock game for the Flames.
“Plus I think Liberty will have difficulty matching up with Oregon’s 7-foot senior center Nate Bittle. They don’t face many guys with Bittle’s size and skill set in Conference USA.”
Marshall, a CBS Sportsline handicapper who won the RJ’s College Football Challenge last season (44-24-2 ATS, 64.7 percent), made Creighton (+2½) over Louisville his best bet in the contest. But he also likes Gonzaga (-6) over Georgia.
The Zags, who beat Saint Mary’s 58-51 in the West Coast Conference tournament title game, feature five players who average more than 10 points per game: Graham Ike (17.1), Khalif Battle (13.2), Nolan Hickman (11.0), Braden Huff (10.8) and Ryan Nembhard (10.8).
“Gonzaga is seeded too low at 8. Their win over Saint Mary’s in the WCC was a great-coached game by Mark Few, even though nobody hit 3s,” Marshall said. “Moving (the 6-foot-10-inch) Huff into the lineup alongside (6-9) Ike gives the Zags real size and will be a real problem for some teams.
“Khalif Battle has come on in the past month. Hickman and Battle make more plays than Nembhard, and Few now realizes that. They can beat Georgia and could be a very scary matchup for Houston in the second round.”
Systemplays.com handicapper Doug Fitz likes SIU Edwardsville (+29½) to cover the biggest number on the board against Houston.
“This game has the lowest total on the NCAA first-round board (at 126½), which should indicate an expected low-scoring game, giving the big ’dog a decent chance to cover,” Fitz said. “Houston can name the score, but they should have no concern on covering this huge number.”
UConn still streaking
Two-time defending national champion UConn has won and covered 12 straight games in the tournament. Pro sports bettor Jeff Whitelaw is banking on the Huskies to extend that streak to 13.
Whitelaw placed 11 bets on the first round, including UConn (-4½) over Oklahoma, Grand Canyon (+10½) over Maryland and Montana (+17½) over Wisconsin.
“I like Grand Canyon a lot, I like Connecticut a lot — that’s my only favorite — and I like Montana a lot,” he said. “It just boils down to making the numbers different. The way I make the numbers, they tend to favor underdogs, and I like to favor some of these smaller schools a lot of people don’t know about.
“You’ll see a lot of these smaller schools are pretty good.”
Here are Whitelaw’s other eight plays: Utah State (+5½), Drake (+6½), Yale (+7½), Bryant (+17½), Vanderbilt (+4½), Robert Morris (+23½), Liberty (+7½) and Akron (+14½).
Not under until it’s over
South Point studio host Alex White, who won Station Casinos’ Last Man Standing college football contest in 2022, made the Vanderbilt-Saint Mary’s under 136½ her best bet in the RJ Challenge.
“Saint Mary’s is a top-10 defense in the country, and they can shut down just about anyone. They play at the sixth-slowest pace, just behind Houston,” White (@alexwhitee) said. “Vanderbilt’s pace slowed down in conference play. (Commodores coach) Mark Byington is a great teacher of defense, and his team improved throughout the year against the best conference in the country.
“Neither team is turnover-prone, leading to fewer fast breaks for either side.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at [email protected]. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
