2009 NCAA Tournament Predictions

Now that we know which teams are playing, Gambling911.com has its early 2009 NCAA Tournament predictions.  These are not actual picks, however, as we will need a good 24 hours to mull over all the line movements and trends.

Still, there are a few preliminary observations that can be made which will help us to formulate our early predictions.

For us it appears West Virginia has more than a point overlay at -8 ½.  Our line on this game came in at -7 ½, which means Dayton deserves a closer look.  One to two point line overlays/underlays, especially around this number, are often pretty important to consider.

California it appears may have a one point underlay whereby they should probably be a -2 favorite vs. Maryland.  They were coming in at -1 at Bookmaker.com.

BYU, meanwhile, seemed to have a 2 point underlay.  Bookmaker had them as a -1 ½ favorite while Gambling911.com gave them a line of -3 ½. 

Now keep an eye on Michigan because Clemson appeared to have an early line overlay of 1 ½ points.   They had them at -5.  We had them at -3 ½.

One game we are really keeping an eye on will be Butler vs. LSU.  Many pundits believe that Butler will enjoy an upset win here and, indeed, Gambling911.com had Butler as the -1 favorite whereas Bookmaker.com opened the line at LSU -2 ½, probably the most "off" line in our opinion.

We have not reviewed games being played by 1/16, 2/15, 3/14 and 4/13 seeded teams as of press time. 

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher