March Madness betting action is finally here! All of the action will kick off on Thursday afternoon when the BYU Cougars and Florida Gators officially start the NCAA Tournament just after 12:00 ET.
The Gators were considered a very questionable tournament team at best. At 21-12, the only thing that really got them into the field of 65 was a few quality out of conference wins and a respectable SEC record. Nothing was overly alarming though.
BYU's 29-5 mark was very respectable though, as the Cougars were consistently one of the top two teams in a conference that has sent four teams to the field of 65.
Both teams crashed out of their conference tournaments prematurely by their standards, but both will look to make amends with a victory in their first March Madness games this year.
#10 Florida Gators (21-12, 15-13 ATS) vs. #7 BYU Cougars (29-5, 18-13 ATS)
College Basketball Odds:
Florida Gators +5
BYU Cougars -5
Game Total 147
Florida doesn't have a particularly deep squad, and it might ultimately cost it a shot at advancing in this tournament. The starting five plays a ton of minutes and scored virtually all the points on this team.
The bench is only producing 11.0 points per game for HC Billy Donovan's team, making it one of the lowest scoring benches in the entire nation.
The blue and orange must strive for consistency at the offensive end of the court, particularly against a team like BYU that can fly. UF has averaged just 68.3 points per game in its L/4, and went just 1-3 SU in those four outings (2-2 ATS).
Trying to figure out how to stop F Jimmer Fredette is going to be a tough task as well. Fredette, who is averaging 21.7 points per game this year, scored 75 points combined in his L/2 battles in the MWC Tournament. He has a knack for getting to the foul line (36 attempts in his L/2 games) and is fantastic when he gets there (35/36 in those two games and 89.6 percent for the season).
He's the catalyst for an offense which is scoring a whopping 83.0 points per game this year, #2 in the entire country. The Cougars also play respectable defense, allowing just 65.2 points per game, and they're one of the few teams in the land that is shooting better from beyond the arc (42.0%) than it is allowing opposing teams to shoot from the floor (40.7%).
College Basketball Insider Betting Tip: The Cougars are 7-2 ATS in their L/9 games as college basketball betting favorites.
BYU has had a bad history early in this tournament of late. The Cougars haven't advanced out of the first round of any national postseason tourney since the '02 NIT, and they only missed one postseason in that stretch.
Still, this is their year. It's pretty well accepted that Florida is overrated as a #10 seed and that BYU is underrated as a #7. This is probably the best BYU squad since the Rafael Araujo days, and wasting this type of talent with a first round upset defeat isn't an option.
Expect the Cougs to march on easily.
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