Solid opening day here, with Arizona and Oregon coming through. Drake sure blew that late to keep us from a clean sweep! Hopefully you've given yourself a long weekend, because yesterday was just the beginning. We have another 16 games on tap and we're ready to keep the madness flowing.
Marching on to a full Friday
New Mexico moneyline (-135 FanDuel)
New Mexico is probably our favorite double-digit seed to make a run, and that will start here against No. 6 Clemson. The Tigers were a very up-and-down team this season and lack dynamic guards to create offense.
The Lobos, meanwhile, just won what is a very strong Mountain West Conference, and bring a strong defense (No. 22 in KenPom) and an offense that is finding its groove. They are trending in the right direction and could be a bracket-buster in this West Region. They're favored against Clemson, which should tell you all you need to know in terms of this No. 11 seed. We'll drop the points and just back New Mexico to win today.
We're a sucker for the Ivys in March, as so often the Ivy League champ seems to keep it close or win a game or two. Yale is this year's team to back against a very good Auburn team. Many consider Auburn one of the best bets to take down UConn in this region, and we're not saying Yale wins, but we like them to keep it close.
The Bulldogs are a deep and balanced team, with five players averaging 10+ points. They don't turn the ball over and they're a solid rebounding team. Give us the points in this one.
Charleston-Alabama over 173.5 points (-110 FD)
This is a square pick no doubt, with one of the highest totals ever in a NCAA tournament game. These two came up when we first broke down the matchups for one simple reason: three pointers.
Charleston and Alabama rank third and fourth in the nation in threes attempted per game. Let 'em fly, fellas, and make 'em too, while you're at it. Both teams also push the pace, we're hoping for a 90-85 type game here. We don't hate Charleston pulling the upset.
In the news ...
Day 1 in NCAA tournament brings plenty of excitement — The opening day of the first round gave us upsets (Duquesne, Oakland), comebacks (Dayton), convincing wins (Gonzaga, Illinois) and everything in between. We already will be guaranteed at least one double-digit seed in the Sweet 16 with NC State-Oakland now set to square off tomorrow, and we have a feeling there will be more. We've got you covered with betting breakdowns for all the Friday games, so load up some bets if your brackets are already toast and have yourself a day.
Brandon Ingram injures knee — In an unfortunate turn of events, New Orleans Pelicans star Brandon Ingram injured his knee on Thursday night, in what looked to be a pretty serious injury. If the MRI comes back with bad news, it would be a brutal blow for a Pelicans team sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference and enjoying one of the best years they've ever had. Hopefully, Ingram avoids the worst. The favorites to win the West are currently the Nuggets (+160), Clippers (+295) and Thunder (+850).
Shohei Ohtani and interpreter gambling story keeps getting weirder — The stories keep shifting in this Shohei Ohtani-interpreter saga. Initially, Ohtani's interpreter Ippei Mizuhara claimed in an interview with ESPN that Ohtani was aware of his troubles and wired money to a bookmaker to help his buddy out. Then, once word of Mizuhara's firing emerged, his story changed. Suddenly, Ohtani had "no knowledge" of his interpreter's dealings. Furthermore, he only became aware of the theft of roughly $4.5M of his money when Mizuhara confessed Thursday inside the Dodgers clubhouse. What is going on? We have no idea. Don't get into $4.5 million of gambling debt, kids.
Today's Bark Bets is written by Griffin Carroll. Follow him on Substack: griffybets.substack.com.
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