2008 March Madness Betting Odds
Find all the latest 2008 March Madness betting odds news in this pivotal blog that will cover the 2008 March Madness season.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Have Good Odds in 2008 March Madness
Posted Mar 15th 2008 9:55 pm by Dan Shapiro
Filed under: 2008 March Madness Betting Odds
At +5000 odds, Notre Dame certainly has value this March Madness season. That's a $5000 payout for every $100 bet.
Charles Rich of the AOL Fan House writes:
Player You Should Know: Luke Harangody was the Big East Player of the Year and a 2nd team All-American player. Of course, you probably knew about him. Harangody is reliable and consistent. The player that really matters for ND is Kyle McAlarney. The sharp-shooting guard provides the spacing and daggers from outside that allows Harangody to wreak havoc inside. When McAlarney is off, the Irish really struggle.
Outlook: There is no reason why the Irish shouldn't make the Sweet 16. They have a balanced team that can score in the paint and on the perimeter. Their weakness inside is that after Harangody, they really lack players in the frontcourt willing to do the dirty work and fight for rebounds. They thrive with a faster pace. Teams that can control the tempo and shut down their perimeter shooting will spell the end for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame got beat by Marquette this week in a shocking upset.
Maybe a quarter of the seats at Madison Square Garden remained filled as midnight passed and Notre Dame slinked off as a quarterfinal loser in the Big East tournament, writes Brian Hamilton of the Chicago Tribune
Judging by bracket prognostications far and wide, Notre Dame appears headed for a No. 4 or No. 5 seed. The difference is subtle and potentially negligible. Maybe as a fifth seed the Irish will face the last at-large team to make the field, whereas a fourth seed could net them a weaker small-conference champ.
But the path is essentially the same. And the personnel matchups in the first and second rounds will dictate the suitable level of optimism. Nevertheless, after 14 wins in the Big East regular season, another first-round swoon, such as last year's against Winthrop, would be borderline inexcusable.
North Carolina Not The Favorite to Win 2008 Men's NCAA Tournament
Posted Mar 15th 2008 9:30 pm by Dan Shapiro
Filed under: 2008 March Madness Betting Odds
Sure North Carolina may be ranked number one in most major polls including ESPN and the Associated Press, but one place they are not ranked number one is with the online oddsmakers.
In fact, two teams are given better odds than North Carolina of winning the 2008 Men's NCAA Tournament: Kansas and Memphis. Kansas is ranked around number 5 in polls while Memphis tends to come in around number 2 or 3.
BetUS.com has given North Carolina odds of +600 to win the Tournament. That's a $600 payout for every $100 bet while Kansas and Memphis both had shorter odds of +500.
Clemson crashed North Carolina's party on Saturday.
From ESPN.com:
The Tigers managed to do in the second semifinal what Virginia Tech came amazingly close to doing in the first semifinal -- knocking off one of the Carolina favorites right here in North Carolina, where the color orange sticks out like a Pinto at a Porsche dealership. Of the 110 possible berths in the ACC tournament final, 84 have gone to in-state teams. Earlier, North Carolina had continued that trend of dominance by holding off the Hokies and making the finals on a 68-66 win on Tyler Hansbrough's last-second shot.
All season long, this league has been classified as Duke, Carolina and everybody else. The Tar Heels won the regular-season championship, and Duke followed. The two split their two matchups in the regular season. The assumption was they would meet for a third time Sunday. Instead, Clemson will be the final hurdle on top-ranked North Carolina's drive for a No. 1 seed in the East region.
Virginia Tech and Clemson both proved the league goes a little deeper than that. But the question is how much deeper the NCAA tournament selection committee will see it.
"We whup up on the Big Ten every single year in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, and they're talking about maybe a fifth team in the league?" Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said after his team's loss. "It's absolutely absurd. It's ludicrous."
At +600 odds though, North Carolina was still a good bet. Their odds might even be shorter by Selection Sunday thanks to Clemson.
Clemson Odds to Win the 2008 Men's NCAA Tournament
Posted Mar 15th 2008 8:19 pm by Dan Shapiro
Filed under: 2008 March Madness Betting Odds
Heading into Saturday's upset win over Duke, Clemson was a +10000 long shot to win the 2008 Men's NCAA Tournament. The payout: A whopping $10,000 for every $100 bet! Find Betting Odds Here
For Clemson, it's the first time they are reaching the ACC Final since 1962!
Trevor Booker scored 18 points, Cliff Hammonds added 17 and Clemson, the perennial pushover in the Atlantic Coast Conference, stunned No. 7 Duke 78-74 on Saturday. The third-seeded Tigers (24-8), who had lost 22 straight games to the Blue Devils, pulled away in the second half to spoil a much more familiar North Carolina-Duke rematch in the championship. Instead Clemson, which has never won the ACC title, will get a shot at the top-ranked Tar Heels on Sunday.
The athletic Tigers, who have improved all season and should make their first NCAA tournament appearance in 10 years, exploited Duke's weakness inside when it mattered.
Clemson was also a huge underdog to win the ACC as recently as last week.
Kansas University Jayhawks Favorites to Win 2008 Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament
Posted Mar 15th 2008 7:39 pm by Don Shapiro
Filed under: 2008 March Madness Betting Odds
Good news for the Kansas Jayhawks. The number two seeded Jayhawks were the +500 favorites to win the 2008 Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament. That's a payout potential of $500 for every $100 bet.
The bad news is that Kansas keeps on playing dangerously close.
No. 2-seeded KU trailed No. 7-seed Nebraska by nine points with 1:30 left in the first half and by five at halftime of a Big 12 tournament quarterfinal clash Friday night at Sprint Center.
KU’s sloppy play — the Jayhawks had 12 turnovers against just five assists the first half — had KU coach Bill Self seething at the break.
“He was really frustrated with the way we were playing,” KU senior forward Darnell Jackson said, crediting a cutting halftime speech as the main reason for KU’s 64-54 come-from-behind victory.
“He didn’t freak out at all. The only thing he said was, ‘Do you want to go home? Or do you want to advance?’ We answered him with our play the second half.”
Atlanta Tornado Forces Postponement of SEC Tournament
Posted Mar 15th 2008 12:31 pm by Gambling911.com News Wire
Filed under: 2008 March Madness Betting Odds
The SEC will take the unprecedented move and have a team play twice in one day in order to conclude the storm-delayed conference tournament in Atlanta before the NCAA tournament selection announcement Sunday at 6 p.m.
Early Saturday morning, SEC director of communications, DeWayne Peevy, told ESPN.com by phone from Atlanta that Georgia and Kentucky would play at noon Saturday in a makeup of the postponed quarterfinal on the campus of Georgia Tech at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, instead of the storm-damaged Georgia Dome. The first semifinal pitting Tennessee and Arkansas would take place at 6 p.m. while the second semifinal between the winner of Kentucky-Georgia and Mississippi State will tip at approximately 8:30 p.m.
The final is scheduled for 3 p.m. on CBS Sunday. All games will be at Georgia Tech. Peevy said the league consulted with committee chair Tom O'Connor, the athletic director of George Mason, on the decision. SEC commissioner Mike Slive is on the committee as well and was part of the decision process from Indianapolis. Peevy said since the league reaffirmed that the automatic qualifier from the SEC comes from the conference tournament then the games have to be played prior to theannouncement of the selections on Sunday. Peevy said O'Connor told the SEC that if it wants to preserve its automatic qualifier among the 31 AQs that are awarded for the field of 65 then the tournament must be completed.
Peevy said the league also will limit attendance in the 9100-seat arena to only the players' families, cheerleaders, bands and other credentialed individuals. He said further announcements were pending about refunding tickets.
He said the league looked at all possible scenarios, including co-champs by playing one game Saturday and the semifinals Sunday, but were told that if they wanted the AQ then the tourney had to be completed.
Kentucky and Georgia's head coaches and athletic directors signed off on this arrangement. SEC officials had to agree to this deal because they have deemed that their conference champion is the tournament champion and thus the automatic qualifier out of the conference.
Odds to Win the 2008 Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament
Posted Mar 14th 2008 10:10 pm by Don Shapiro
Filed under: 2008 March Madness Betting Odds
Odds to win the 2008 Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament were updated the hours leading up to Selection Sunday. The lines appearing below were betable and could be locked in the weekend of March 14. But these odds would not last long, so getting in on the action early was deemed prudent by Gambling911.com.
BetUS.com odds to win the 2008 Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament could be found on their website by clicking on the SPORTSBOOK tab at the top of the page, FUTURES, then 2007-2008 NCAA Mens Tournament (lines appear by scrolling down the site). It's an absolutely horrible site for navigating to find the odds, but once you do, it's like discovering a hidden treasure. Simply put, BetUS.com does offer some of the best NCAA Basketball Tournament future odds this season.
There are some interesting high payout potential teams listed below. For example, USC would pay $4000 for every $100 bet. Purdue would pay $6000 for every $100 bet.
Even the favorites still would pay out handsomely. Kansas pays $500 for every $100 bet. Memphis pays $500 for every $100 bet. North Carolina pays $600 for every $100 bet, as does UCLA. Tennessee and Louisville would pay out $1000 for eery $100 bet. Duke would pay $1200 for every $100 bet.
2008 NCAA March Madness Office Pools Cause Facebook to Face Legal Scrutiny
Posted Mar 14th 2008 10:54 am by Christopher Costigan
Filed under: 2008 March Madness Betting Odds
NCAA March Madness office pools are illegal, this is what the US Government and local law enforcement wants everybody to know. But raiding the office of a law firm or an investment bank might not sit will with too many people. Hence, the Government has set its eyes on a more "acceptable" target - the social networking website of Facebook.com, which looks to xpand the 2008 NCAA March Madness office pool experience beyond the office.
The reality is that in many ways online NCAA March Madness betting is "more legal" than that of a typical office pool. And while the US Government might not see things this way, the rationale here is that online gambling sites accept bets offshore. With office pools, money is bet and taken right smack in the middle of just about every city in the United States.
Facebook, likewise, is located in the US.
