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These two sure picked a great time for their first-ever meeting with the 2019 National Championship on the line. The Virginia Cavaliers and Texas Tech Red Raiders got to the final by doing what they do best – play defense. So we probably won’t see a track meet on Monday. Instead the title game will have an old-school feel to it as the first team to 50 points will be declared the winner. ... 

We weren’t sure how the Baylor Lady Bears would react if they had to play in a close game since most of their victories have been by double-digits this season. Well, we found out on Friday, and the outcome was the same as the previous 27 games. The Lady Bears overcame a late deficit to put Oregon down and will now try and prevent the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from going back-to-back. The Irish staged their own rally to beat UConn in the semis and can become the fourth team to win consecutive wom... 

The NCAA basketball tournament is like three weeks of Christmas for the betting community, and the Final Four is that last present under the tree that nobody saw. If you’re not already exhausted, the excitement for that last gift is palpable. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but BookMaker is giving bettors more than just game spreads and totals. Think Super Bowl and you know exactly what’s in store for Final Four weekend, just slightly toned down.... 

The Michigan State Spartans are the only team among the Final Four to have won a National Championship. In fact the Spartans have two titles with the last coming in 2000. Most of the players on the floor Saturday night were in diapers back then so it means absolutely nothing to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, who are here for the first time in program history. All past accomplishments aside, this one has the makings of a backyard brawl with two teams that are very good at preventing opponents from s... 

Reaching the Final Four isn’t going to dull the pain of last year’s memorable first round loss when the Virginia Cavaliers were the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16. The only thing that will make Tony Bennett and his squad feel better is winning it all. The Cavs can take another step toward their goal but they have to get past the scorching hot Auburn Tigers to do it. The Tigers knocked off college basketball royalty to get here and they’ve won 12 straight heading into Saturday’s first natio... 

If you know where Lipscomb University is located without looking it up, you’re either an alum or someone with way too much time on your hands. I’ll save you the trouble. The tiny school is located in Nashville, Tennessee and competes in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Lipscomb Bisons basketball team is doing its best to make people notice. They reached the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time and advanced to the NIT championship to face the Texas Longhorns by taking down Wichita State o... 

There are a handful of teams good enough to reach the Women’s Final Four and we’re seeing them in Tampa with a chance to cut down the nets on Sunday. Somehow the Connecticut Huskies were a No. 2 seed in their region and that just pissed them off. The Huskies, reached the Final Four for the 12th straight time are arguably the class of the women’s game, but they haven’t won a National Championship since 2016, so they have that motivation as well.... 

A couple of interesting matchups highlight the NIT version of the final four when the semifinal round of the oldest postseason basketball tournament in the country takes place on Tuesday. An all Texas and Big 12 tilt in the late game features a pair of teams that didn’t think they’d be here. Not because they weren’t good enough, rather their sights were set on the NCAAs. Turns out it’s probably a good thing the TCU Horned Frogs and Texas Longhorns are in the NIT since they would have been early-... 

My, what to make of this year’s Final Four. We entered the weekend with all four No. 1 seeds still in contention for the National Championship and the unlikeliest of the quartet is the one still competing. The mighty Duke Blue Devils with future No. 1 NBA draft pick and polarizing figure Zion Williamson looked like a team of destiny after escaping a few near misses. Instead it’s Michigan State, who upended Duke on Sunday, playing in the national semifinal.... 

There are just five NCAA Tournament games left this season, so there are only a few more times to make money before the long college basketball offseason sets in. Saturday’s two Elite Eight games were both great games, and you would have made money if you would have followed me on both as I had Texas Tech outright and Virginia to cover. The Cavaliers’ miracle cover made my day a little brighter than it should have been, but I’ll take it. Let’s keep it rolling.... 

Two of the Final Four teams have been determined. Both of Saturday’s games were fantastic as Texas Tech outlasted Gonzaga in a defensive slugfest in order to make it to the Final Four for the first time in school history. The Red Raiders are now waiting for the winner of Duke and Michigan State with a spot in the National Championship Game on the line, and they know they are likely to be underdogs in that one. ... 

We started with 68 teams, and now we are down to just eight. The Elite Eight will kick off on Saturday afternoon, and the final eight teams in the NCAA Tournament are looking to punch their tickets to the Final Four in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It’s been a very chalky tournament, but a No. 1 seed finally went down when Auburn shot the lights out against North Carolina on Friday night. Texas Tech and Purdue are both looking to carry the banner for non-No. 1 seeds.... 

The Elite Eight is here, and there is money to be made. The chalk has largely held serve and advanced throughout the NCAA Tournament as we haven’t seen a lot of big upsets. However, many of those teams have had a hard time covering, and No. 1 seeds are a combined 5-7 ATS at this point in March Madness. No. 1 seeds Virginia and Gonzaga will be in action with a spot in the Final Four on the line tonight.... 

The NCAA Tournament has been whittled down to eight teams left standing, and many of the pre-tournament favorites are still in the hunt. While much of the elite eight focus will be on which teams advance to the Final Four, the savvy bettors won’t be exclusively worried about the outcome of the games.... 

The second day of Sweet 16 games will complete the Elite 8 field for the weekend. But which squads will keep playing? There has been a trend during NCAA Tournament play that’s seen the favored team win a bunch of games. All the favorites won in the second round setting the stage for the second weekend of play. It’s called March Madness and we haven’t seen much of it so far. I guess the favorites might be quivering before tipoff. That means you Michigan State, North Carolina, Duke and Kentucky.... 

The second batch of Elite 8 competitors will be decided on Friday when the last of the Sweet 16 games are completed in the NCAA Tournament. Five teams from the ACC reached the Sweet 16 round and two of them will square off when the No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils and No. 4 Virginia Tech Hokies decide one East Region finalist. The teams met during the regular season with Tech handing the Zion-less Dookies one of their five losses on the year. Three of those defeats came when the future No. 1 NBA draf... 

The last four matchups of the Sweet Sixteen round will take place on Friday, as four teams will be eliminated and the others will move on to the Elite Eight. A lot of the favorites have done a nice job advancing to this point, but the competition gets tougher moving forward.... 

For the first time since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, all the favorites won their second-round games leaving little to the imagination for the Sweet 16. Will the trend continue in the next round? Or do we get a few upsets to finally call this madness? The clean sweep put the top three seeds from each region into the Sweet 16 and the matchups are worth salivating over. The best college basketball teams in the country will be on display and four of them will advance to the Elite 8 following Thursday’s contests. ... 

All eyes will be focused on Anaheim and Louisville for the NCAA Sweet 16 matchups. But just in case you’ve been living in a cave, there are other games being played on Thursday. OK, a cave might to a little much, and folks outside the cities of CBI and CIT combatants probably don’t realize those tournaments exist. But they do, and the squads in them are excited about the chance of hoisting a postseason trophy. South Florida gets a home game against Loyola Marymount for the right to play DePaul in the best-of-three CBI championship series. The Bulls are a 4.5-point favorite on the opening college basketball betting line. ... 

The NCAA Tournament has been kind to the betting the favorites, as it has been close to chalk through the first two rounds. For those bettors who have been burned thus far, perhaps it’s time to take a different route for the second week of March Madness.... 

Is your bracket already busted? Never fear, you can enter the BookMaker Second Chance Bracket Contest for a shot at a $5,000 First Place prize and pick games starting with the Sweet Sixteen. Take a second chance at picking the winners in this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournament beginning with the first game of the Sweet Sixteen on Thursday, March 28. Points are awarded for each correct pick and the person who gets the highest score will win the $5,000 First Place prize and 500,000 BetPoints. ... 

There are only three games on the college basketball slate for Wednesday, and while they may not have the intensity and glamour of the NCAA Tournament, they all carry their own postseason implications. The NIT will award the final two spots for its version of the final four with a trip to New York and Madison Square Garden on the line. Texas and North Carolina State complete the round of games held on campus sites, and not surprisingly both are favored on the opening college basketball betting l... 

A lull before the madness begins again. That’s what we have on the Wednesday college basketball schedule. Only three games are on tap, but don’t tell the teams involved that they are meaningless. Two NIT quarterfinal round games have the green light with a trip to New York City and Madison Square Garden at stake.... 

There weren’t many surprises from the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament with the top three seeds from each region advancing to the Sweet 16. The Duke Blue Devils had the closest call with a narrow victory over Central Florida on Sunday, but that near-miss didn’t sway oddsmakers, who still have the Dookies pegged as the favorite to cut down the nets in Minneapolis on April 8.... 

With a thrilling weekend of NCAA Tournament basketball put to rest, our attention turns to the other postseason events that take over during the week to fill the void. The battle to see what team is the 69th best in college basketball resumes with a pair of quarterfinal games in the NIT. We also have three games as part of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Unlike the NCAA Tournament, these events put the better seeded teams on their home floor, and thus all five games have the home team playing...