Ricky Dimon
Just like the that, the NCAA Tournament field has been cut in half over the past 2 days – from 64 to 32. Sweet 16 spots will start being handed out on Saturday, when 8 more games are played. Among the teams hoping to be part of that select company are Princeton and Furman, which pulled off respective first-round upsets of Arizona and Virginia. At the other end of the spectrum are blue bloods like Duke, Kansas and UCLA, who hope to continue taking care of business.
Here is my 3-team mega parlay for Saturday, and also make sure to check out our March Madness basketball picks for all of the games.
Furman ML (+200)
Duke -3.5 (-110)
UCLA -7.5 (-110)
NCAAB parlay odds: +993
For this parlay we are going with 1 underdog on the money line and 2 favorites against the spread. Let’s break down each of the 3 legs.
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Furman Paladins ML over San Diego State Aztecs (+200)
Furman is no joke. The Paladins were a trendy pick to upset Virginia in the opening round and that is exactly what they did on Thursday. Now they face an opponent that also hails from a small conference (the Mountain West) and hasn’t been to the Sweet 16 since 2014. The Aztecs are a defensive-minded team (just like Virginia!), which naturally leads to relatively close, low-scoring games. The Paladins should be able to stay in this from start to finish, and we just saw how well they can handle late-game pressure. Sound the upset alert…again!
Duke Blue Devils -3.5 over Tennessee Volunteers (-110)
Duke comes in as one of the hottest teams in the nation after winning the ACC Tournament and then easily disposing of a legit Oral Roberts team in round 1. Oral Roberts has proven to be a danger in March of late, but that game was a blowout right from the start. Whereas the Blue Devils are rolling, Tennessee struggled down the stretch of the regular season after losing point guard Zakai Zeigler to a knee injury. Zeigler won’t be back, which means the Volunteers are facing an uphill battle. Tennessee’s style of play is predicated on defense and it can guard anyone in the country, but it’s hard to see how the offense is going to put up many points on Duke. Look for the Blue Devils to put the clamps down with a great defense of their own and not only advance but also cover the spread.
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UCLA Bruins -7.5 over Northwestern Wildcats (-110)
I have UCLA winning it all, as indicated in our March Madness futures roundtable. This is an experienced group that is built for March, led by Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyger Campbell while being coached by Mick Cronin. I have no reason to believe that the Bruins are getting bounced in round 2 by Northwestern. The Wildcats took care of Boise State on Thursday, but it’s hard to look past the fact that they lost 4 of their last 5 games prior to the NCAA Tournament. Prior to beating Boise State, Northwestern had gone 5 consecutive contests without scoring more than 65 points. I don’t think the ‘Cats can keep up with UCLA.
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