College Basketball Odds: Final Four Opening Numbers
Written March 30, 2009 by Jack Jones
All season long it seems like the analysts on TV and the general public have been hammering home their point that the Big East Conference was the best in the nation and the North Carolina Tar Heels are the only other team thinking about for the national title. Well, it doesn’t seem like they were far off as three of the four teams left standing in the NCAA tournament fit that bill. The outlier is Michigan State, which belongs to a Big Ten Conference that most people wrote off as being down this year. The Spartans though are for real, which is why Michigan State is a four point underdog to Connecticut. The Spartans had to upset the top seed in the tournament, Louisville, in order to get here, but now that they have made the Final Four you better take notice. This event is taking place at Ford Field in Detroit, which means this is as close to a home game as any team is going to find. That alone should be worth a couple of points in their favor.
The problem for Michigan State fans is that Connecticut has been so dominant to this point in the tournament. They have covered all four games in beating Chattanooga, Texas A&M, Purdue and Missouri by a combined 101 points. If you are a Huskie backer though, you have to be concerned with the allegations faced by the team for recruiting violations. Having the heat turned up on the players due to the media coverage of this event will only be magnified now. The total on this game has been set at 135 as the Huskies have proven to be able to run, but also like to get into their half-court defense with big man Hasheem Thabeet down low.
The other semifinal matchup will find North Carolina as 7.5 point favorites against Villanova. That number shouldn’t be surprising with the way that the Tar Heels took care of Oklahoma by 12 points yesterday. The Tar Heels are a big favorite, but you can’t count out Villanova after they took out both Duke and Pittsburgh to get here. The experts are counting on a lot of points in this game with the total being set at 160.
If you want to take advantage of these final opportunities to beat the weak college basketball odds then we recommend you sign up for a package of NCAA basketball picks. Our handicappers have been dominant with their basketball betting all season long and will continue to do so with their final college basketball picks.
If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:
- Odds to Win the NCAA Champsionship: Final Four Edition
- 2009 Final Four Expert Picks
- 2009 Final Four Predictions: Who Makes the Championship Game?
- 2009 Final Four Odds Set for Saturday
- 2009 Final Four Matchups
One Response to “College Basketball Odds: Final Four Opening Numbers”
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Nice article Jack, I really like your in depth analysis of the teams. I’m not happy to see these teams in the Final Four, they totally ruined my bracket, and it would have been neat to have 3 Big East Teams in it. One thing you’ll notice, each team has great coaches (Michigan State – Tom Izzo, North Carolina – Roy Williams, Villanova – Jay Wright, and UCONN – Jim Calhoun).
There weren’t any major Cinderella teams this year, which really makes it a lot more interesting to root for when you have no affinity to any of the teams that are left. You might like this Top Ten NCAA Final Four Upsets: http://www.toptentopten.com/topten/ncaa+final+four+upsets
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