With Conference Tournament betting underway, we go to Pregame Pro Marc Lawrence for his March Madness handicapping and betting tips to make the best college basketball picks possible. It’s Championship Week and with it the reward of a ticket to the Big Dance to all the teams who will be cutting down the nets immediately after their conference tournament championship game. Before knee jerking and playing on teams in title games that on paper look to be the better squad, instead pay close attention to these four College Conference Championship Game moneymaking scenarios. You could end up padding your NCAA Tournament bankroll. Note: all results are prior to this year’s tourneys and are since 1990…
Home is where the heart is. It’s also where the money is in championship games. That’s confirmed by the fact that ‘on-board’ teams are 36-14 SU and 28-21-1 ATS. If these home advantaged teams lost one or fewer games at home on the season they improve to 22-1 SU and 15-7-1 ATS, including 15-1 SU and 12-3-1 ATS if they are hosting a No.1 or No. 2 seeded opponent. Best of all, these one-loss wonders are 6-0 SU and ATS if the opponent did not cover the number in it’s semi-final contest.
As rare as it may seem, teams with the better record are not always favored in Championship Games. Believe me, when the linemakers install the opponent with an inferior win percentage the favorite in the game he’s knows what he’s doing. That’s because underdogs with a better win percentage are just 16-25-2 ATS in these games. And if the favorite owns a win percentage of .700 or more, the dog dips to 6-17 ATS. Better yet, puppies with a better record who arrive to the title game off back-to-back SU and ATS wins are a lowly 1-9 ATS. Buyer beware.
Having been there and done that goes a long way toward a team’s success in conference title games. That’s confirmed by the fact that team who won 27 or more games the previous season use that weight to their advantage, going 63-39-3 ATS in these affairs. Put them up against a No. 4 or lower seed and they improve to 29-2 SU and 23-7-1 ATS, including 16-0 SU and 15-1 ATS if they defeated their lightweight opponent in a most recent contest.
Momentum can carry a team a long way, especially when they arrive to the championship game of their conference tourney. No. 1 or 2 seeded favorites that enter off three wins in a row by an average win margin of 20 PPG or better are 17-1 SU and 14-4 ATS. Put them up against an opponent that failed to cover the spread by more than six points in its last game and they zoom right to the head of the class, going 13-0 SU and 12-1 ATS. There you have it, four time-tested Championship Game theories to ponder for Championship Week. Get your dancing shoes ready…
Betting Strategies: College Basketball Conference Tournaments: Host Marco D'Angelo and Pregame's own Johnny Detroit talk about how important the college basketball conference tournaments are for some teams and also discuss: Conference tournaments are purest handicap of the season and other various handicapping angles.