This Sunday (12th March) saw Selection Sunday and with that, the bracket has finally been completed for March Madness. There were some surprises, like Houston earning the number 2 seed over Kansas, but now we’ve officially got the completed bracket and the basketball creeps ever closer, it’s time for us to take a look into who we think are going to be the biggest performers for the 2023 edition of the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Championship, or, March Madness.
Of the 68 teams that get the chance to perform on the biggest stage in Division 1 Basketball, there are a few teams we’d like to look at today, but to begin with we’re going to be throwing many of you for a loop. There is one team in particular I personally have been keeping a keen eye on and while it’s true their conference isn’t the best so many may think it’s easy to look at their 31-3 record and think it isn’t all that impressive, the Florida Atlantic Owls have been exceptional this season.
Taking a look at the statistics of the Owls, it’s likely that many of you would write them off. They don’t have any players that are putting up outrageous numbers in every game, however they are a unit that seem to share the load. Johnell Davis, Alijah Martin and Vladislav Goldin all put in an average of 10+ points per game and all 3 of them are also putting up over 5 rebounds a game too. They have 3 players putting up over 2 assists per game too with Jalen Gaffney, Nicholas Boyd and Bryan Greenlee. Sure, they don’t have that ONE stand out player like some of the other teams, but when you’re a well oiled machine that runs smoothly and gets the job done, you don’t particularly need that superstar.
Azuolas Tubelis has finally been getting well deserved recognition for his standout season.
Source: AZCental
Now I’d like to look at the Arizona Wildcats. The Wildcats finished their season with a 28-6 record and beat UCLA in the Pac-12 conference tournament to claim their place in March Madness. Their standout star this season has been Azuolas Tubelis who has been lighting things up in the league, averaging 30 minutes per game across 34 games, 19.8 points per game and 9.3 rebounds as well as 2 assists. This man can absolutely do it all and has helped fire the Wildcats into a favourable first round tie. I’m honestly expecting big things from the Wildcats, they have 5 players averaging 10+ points per game and two players on 8+ rebounds, not only that but Kerr Kriisa has been smashing it with the apples too, 5.2 assists per game.
So now we’ve taken some time to talk about some of the teams we hope to see perform well on the big stage, we should now look forward to the tournament and check out their first games. We’ll be checking out all the biggest and best sportsbooks for the odds of NCAA March Madness games to make sure you get the most for your money. The logical place to start is the first team we’ve talked about, the Florida Atlantic Owls who open their tournament against the Memphis Tigers.
For this one the Owls are the underdogs coming in at +115 returning $10.75 from a $5 stake. The Tigers on the other hand are -135 returning $8.70 from the same stake. Next up are the Arizona Wildcats who kick off their tournament against the Princeton Tigers. With the Wildcats being the 7th seed you can imagine they’re heavy favourites here and you’d be right, at -1200 they return a mere $5.41 from $5, so perhaps it would be best to use them in a parlay, Princeton however come in at +750 which returns a massive $42.50. If you fancy the “underdog parlay” on these games you can get the Tigers and the Owls at +1727 returning $91.37 from $5. Not too bad.
While we’re here we may as well take a look at the odds on the teams we’ve mentioned to go all the way, but not only that, we’ll add in the top three favourites to lift that trophy in April. Again starting with the Owls, they come in at a massive +15000, of course there’s a reason for this but they could honestly be dark horses, they see a return of $755 from $5. The Wildcats are at +1600 returning $85. Then to top it off the top 3 are as follows, third place sees Kansas Jayhawks at +1000 returning $55, then the Alabama Crimson Tide at +750 returning $42.50, finally the Houston Cougars at +500 returning $30.
Will Houston make their #1 seed count or will somebody catch us all off guard on April 3rd?
Source: Sports Illustrated
So, Basketball fans. What do you think? Will the Florida Atlantic Owls surprise a few people or will they go crashing out at the first hurdle? If they can get past Memphis I think people might start to believe that their 31-3 record is the real deal and at that point those odds of +15000 might start to be a little bit more attractive to a lot of people, though their path to the final is rough, providing the beat Memphis they likely play Purdue, Tennessee, Kansas State and then Alabama… As for the Arizona Wildcats, I can’t see them having any trouble getting through their first game, however the bracket doesn’t get easier for them moving forward, their path to the final would likely be Missouri, Baylor, Alabama, Purdue. Two very scary runs.
The only fact that remains is that, we have a lot of basketball to play between now and the 3rd April when the NCAA Championship game will be played, hearts will be broken, tears of joy will be cried and at the end of it, one team will reign as the kings of Men’s Division 1 basketball. Who do you folks think will take the crown? Will it be one of the experts top 3? Will it be one of the teams we’ve focused on here? Or will it be somebody completely different, catching everyone off guard? To this day there hasn’t been a champion that was a lower seed since Villanova in 1985, they came in as the 8th seed. Will that be beaten this year? Only time will tell!
