Great sportsbook Bodog previews Richmond vs. St. Mary's and Florida versus BYU. Of all sports betting picks today, none is bigger than Matt Rivers winner on St. Mary's vs. Richmond. Literally every March Madness spread pick needed has been posted.
Saint Mary's and Richmond are two mid-major teams who appear very much alike (on the surface), and this No. 10 vs. No. 7 matchup on Thursday afternoon in Providence, R.I., looks like one of the NCAA Tournament's most evenly matched first-round games. The Spiders have opened as 2-point favorites on Bodog's NCAA Basketball Odds
The Gaels (26-5, 19-10 ATS) seem to always play second fiddle to Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference, but they upset the Zags to win the conference tournament and thus not have to worry about an at-large bid that didn't come last year despite a stellar record. Saint Mary's is led by center Omar Samhan, who averaged 20.9 points and 11.0 rebounds this season as the most dominant player in the WCC. The Gaels are a good offensive team, ranking 11th in Division I in field goal percentage (48.7) and fourth in 3-point field goal percentage. SMC is 1-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament hasn't won a game in it since March 12, 1959.
Richmond (26-8, 18-10-2 ATS) lost to Temple in the Atlantic 10 Tournament final, which snapped a four-game winning streak for the Spiders against ranked foes. Richmond has a great backcourt led by Kevin Anderson (17.9 points per game), the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, and David Gonzalvez (14.5 ppg), but if the team has one big weakness it's rebounding. The school is often called Upset U because Richmond is the only team to win NCAA Tournament games as a 12, 13, 14 and 15 seed. This is the Spiders' first NCAA berth since 2004, and for once they will be a lower seed than the opponent. They are 5-1 on neutral court games this season, including wins over NCAA Tournament teams Florida, Xavier and Missouri as well as SEC West champion Mississippi State.
The winner of this game meets the No. 2 Villanova/No. 15 Robert Morris winner in the second round Saturday.
The University of Florida is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since finishing off back-to-back titles in 2007, so the Gators actually enter the Big Dance with a better winning streak in the NCAAs than anyone: 12 straight. However, UF's stay might be one-and-done as it is a 5-point underdog to BYU on Bodog's NCAA Basketball Odds for Thursday's West Region game in Oklahoma City.
No. 7 seed BYU (29-5, 18-13 ATS) was one of the undervalued teams in the country all year, and its conference (the Mountain West) got more bids to the NCAA Tournament than power leagues like the SEC and Pac-10. The Cougars have one of the best players in the country that you may not have heard of in junior guard Jimmer Fredette, who dropped 49 on Arizona earlier this year to set a BYU school record and a record for any player in the Wildcats' McKale Center. He added 45 points in a first-round MWC Tournament game win over TCU before being held to "only" 30 in the Cougars' semifinal loss to UNLV. That was his seventh 30-plus game of the year; there is always one breakout star in every NCAA Tournament and Fredette – who is 12th in the nation in scoring at 21.7 ppg — is a candidate to be the guy in 2010. Meanwhile, Cougars freshman guard Tyler Haws, third on the team in scoring, will play Thursday despite fracturing an orbital bone in last Friday's MWC semifinal game against TCU.
Tenth-seeded Florida (21-12, 15-13 ATS), which barely snuck in with one of the final at-large bids, doesn't have one dominant scoring guy but five averaging in double figures, led by freshman guard Kenny Boynton's 13.6 ppg. One problem for UF is that it is not good at defending the three-pointer (allowing opponents to hit 35-for-71 in its past four losses), while BYU is an excellent three-point shooting team at better than 41 percent.
When making your college basketball bet on this one, know that BYU has lost eight consecutive NCAA Tournament games, which dates to 1993. The Cougars haven't advanced past the Round of 32 since way back in 1981. The winner of this game faces the Kansas State/North Texas winner on Saturday.
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