I actually like don't like a
lot of the 12 seeds this year, but I do like Grand
Canyon to cover the spread What's up everybody? Nick Kostos here. Back
with the Board of Spreads. Now this is the NCAA Tournament edition , tournament edition of
the Board of Spreads. Maybe we'll call it the
Bracket of Spreads, whatever. We last spoke before the big game where Kansas City took down San Francisco. A winner for yours truly. So we're looking to take those winnings and let's win some more
here on the NCA
A tournament. March Matchups here, courtesy of the King of Sportsbooks BetMGM. And we pay homage to the
Board of Spreads as always. Here's how this is going to go. We're going to go through
each of the four regions in the NCAA tournament and
right now I'm going to give you best bets for the first round of games. And we start in the east region with the number one overall seed, the defending champion,
Connecticut Huskies. Now UConn a 26.5 point favorite against the Hats of Stetson. No interest in
betting that game. So let's instead go to
the eight-nine matchup in this region with FAU made
the, I can't say the words that you're expecting to hear here. So the last four, it's a legal thing. So FAU made the last four last year, a 2.5 point favorite here against Northwestern from the Big 10. Now you might look at this and say, oh my god, FAU made the
last four last year. How could FAU not get to
the second round this year? The answer, because FAU
plays absolutely no defense. Great offensive
team,
absolutely no defense. I don't want much to do
with any of those teams coming up in this tournament. So let's play Northwestern +2.5 and I think Northwestern
wins this game outright, advances to the second round where they'll get annihilated by Uconn but Northwestern +2.5 round one against FAU. We will also go to the
4-13 matchup in this region where Auburn, the SEC tournament champion, a 12.5 point favorite against Ivy League
tournament champion Yale. Now think about this. Doesn't it seem
like every single year, the Ivy League champion at the very least plays really well in the first round game, if not poll an outright upset. If it feels like that's
what usually happens, it's because it is what usually happens. How about Princeton last year, #15 seed beating Arizona a #2 seed. So now we've got Yale 12.5 against Auburn with
tournament choker Bruce Pearl. I know he's been to a final four before but usually not too great. Let's play Yale plus 12.5. Absolutely love it. My favorite b
et of the region, Yale plus the points against Auburn. And let's do one more here. For best bets for round
number one in the east region, Duquesne winners of
the A10, they're awful, and I love BYU. BYU year one in the Big 12. BYU can shoot tons of threes. Duquesne doesn't play great defense. I think BYU names its score in this game and BYU wins by double digits. Imagine going to Duquesne much less betting on them, one of the guys here did. BYU laying it against Duquesne. Some best bets for the e
ast region, round number one of the tournament. Alright, moving on to the west region now of the NCAA tournament. Best bets for the first round and we're going to start
with the eight-nine matchup. I'd like to take North Carolina but we don't know who
North Carolina's playing yet in the first round. So let's go to the
eight-nine with Michigan. Oh my god, imagine
you're Mississippi State, like nice regular season,
decent performance in the SEC tournament and
your reward in the first round is Tom
Izzo and Sparty. I mean not great know. You what they say, January,
February, Izzo, April. And Michigan State, despite being the law of the the higher seed here, a nine seed, a one and a half point favorite
against Mississippi State. And let's be honest, like I don't know if Michigan State's definitely
going to win this game, but would you ever bet against Tom Izzo in the first round here? And
if you are North Carolina, you got to be quaking in your boots about going into the second round to pot
entially see Michigan State and Tom Izzo in round number two. Let's not over-complicate this,
let's make it really simple. Hashtag bet square, don't care. Give me Michigan State -1.5 to win and advance to the second
round over Mississippi State. Alright, the 5-12 matchup here. I actually like don't like a
lot of the 12 seeds this year, but I do like Grand
Canyon to cover the spread but I do like Grand
Canyon to cover the spread against St. Mary's. Grand Canyon, a really
balanced team and look, S
t Mary's really impressive. Thumped Gonzaga in the conference tournament
championship last week. So St. Mary's had a really
great regular season, but we've seen St. Mary's not
be a great tournament team. And look, St. Mary's can
definitely win this game, but do I think they win it
by almost two possessions? I don't, so best bet number two coming up in the west region. Let's take Grand Canyon. It's a beautiful place. Grand Canyon +4.5 points against St. Mary's. And for the final best
bet in the w
est region, Clemson is the sixth seed in this region. Clemson's not very good. Clemson, all offense, no defense. Teams like this generally don't perform that great in the tournament. New Mexico with Richard Pitino and the sons of a couple NBA
players in the back court, I think odds makers know the deal here. New Mexico, despite being the 11 seed, is a two and a half point
favorite here against Clemson. New Mexico wins this. I think New Mexico can get
to the regional semi-final, we'll take New Me
xico -2.5 against Clemson in the 6-11 matchup. Best bets for the west
region in the tournament. Alright, continuing here
on the Board of Spreads presented by BetMGM with the south region with Houston as the number
one seed in this region. Will they beat Longwood by 24 points? I don't know, they'll definitely beat them and advance to the second round. So we will move past that game. And let's go to this 5-12
matchup here with Wisconsin. The Big 10 tournament runners up. They did upset Purdue in t
he semi-final this past weekend. Wisconsin, a four and
a half point favorite against the 12 seed James Madison. Now for people out there that don't know about James Madison, my
guess is you will know about James Madison by the
time this game tips off. James Madison comes into the tournament with the most wins of any team that made the tournament, 31 wins. You know why? Because they're really good and Wisconsin had a really nice run in
the Big 10 tournament. Good start to the season and then a lu
ll and then a nice finish. I don't like Wisconsin's defense. This is not like your father or your grandfather's Wisconsin team. I think James Madison will
be able to score enough to at least cover the spread in this game, if not pull the outright upset. So best bet number one in this region. Let's take James Madison +4.5 against Wisconsin. And we'll go only do one
more best bet in this region. And look, this is a
little health dependent and we may not know until
a little later in the week about
the status of Marquette
star guard Tyler Kolek. And having Tyler Kolek from
Marquette is the difference between potentially winning
a national championship and getting bounced in
like the second rounds of the tournament. That's how important Tyler Kolek is. We think that he's going to be good to go with his oblique injury and play, starting in the first round game here against the Hilltoppers
of Western Kentucky. That is the expectation. But just make sure that
you're monitoring this and that yo
u know about
Tyler Kolek status. It matters a lot as you pick your bracket and you pick your bets here for the first rounds of the tournament. Assuming Kolek plays, I love Marquette. I think Marquette is going to get to the national championship game. So I love Marquette, I love Shaka Smart, assuming they have Kolek, and that means that I got to like Marquette
covering the 13 and a half,. Give me Marquette to beat Western Kentucky by two touchdowns in round number one. Two best bets for this reg
ion, the south region of the tournament. And wrapping up the best
bets in the first round in the Midwest region
here for the tournament. This region's really funny, because the number one seed is a team that literally never gets
over the hump in Purdue. And the number two seed is a team that literally never gets
over the hump in Tennessee with Rick Barnes and Matt Painter. Will one of them get to the last four? I actually think one of them will, and we'll tell you who
it's going to be coming up
in a little bit. But this is for best bets for the first round of the tournament. So let's give you a couple here. And let's start with
Tennessee against St. Peter's. The Vols that crashed early
out of the the SEC tournament. A 19 and a half point
favorite against St. Peter's, who you might remember as
the tournament darlings a couple years ago, upsetting
a number of blue blood schools on the way to the elite eight. Now Shaheen Holloway, who
was the coach of St. Peter's during that run is now
th
e coach of Seton Hall. This St. Peter's team is
not that St. Peter's team and Tennessee, despite
obviously an early exit in the SEC tournament, Tennessee
is one of the best teams in the country. Tennessee has one of the
best players in the country in Dalton Knecht and he's
got to "Knecht" Tennessee, it's a bit of a reach, connect Tennessee to the second round here at the huge performance. Tennessee bounced back after
the SEC tournament disaster. Give me the Vols. Laying the 19 and a
half against
St. Peter's in the 2-15 game. How about this one? Really intriguing. 5-12 matchup where McNeese
State is going to be a team that a lot of people like
and with good reason. McNeese State is awesome,
great statistical profile, great regular season. Gonzaga is the five seed here. I think people are a
little bit down on Gonzaga. Lost in their conference
tournament championship game to St. Mary's. But I think this Gonzaga
team is really good and I think this game is on
the knife edge big time here,
where maybe Gonzaga's able to win and maybe go on a little bit of a run. I mean, think about it.
Purdue and Tennessee are the top two seeds in this region. Two coaches that are accustomed
to tournament failure. So is it insane to think
that this could be a year where Mark Few gets
back to the final four. It could happen. I do like McNeese to at least keep the game close. Maybe Gonzaga wins, but I'll take McNeese +5.5 against Gonzaga in that particular matchup. And let's do South Carolina and Ore
gon. And then I want to do a couple seconds on Kansas and Sanford now. I'm not going to claim to have
a personal opinion on this game. That's really like that strong, but I can tell people that my co-host on You Better You Bet, my
show sponsored by BetMGM Ken Barkley, absolutely loves
the Oregon Ducks in this game. Good enough for him. Good
enough for me. Quack, quack. Dana Altman in Oregon taking
down a pretty non-descript South Carolina team. Oregon laying the one
and a half is an 11 seed over
the six seed South Carolina. And I don't have a bet right now for this Kansas and Sanford game. Sanford plays Bucky Ball,
they dig it up and down. They shoot a billion threes. Sanford, a seven and a half
point dog against Kansas. A lot of people like Sanford here. Just keep in mind,
Kansas' two best players. Hunter Dickinson, Kevin McCullar, both missed the Big 12 tournament game that Kansas lost to Cincinnati. They both might be back for this game and if they're both back
and they're both heal
thy, I'm going to like Kansas. If not, maybe Sanford
pulls the outright upset. Just keep that in mind
before you bet this game or pick it in your bracket.
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