march madness

To some folks, March 17 is St. Patrick's Day. On the college hardwood, though, this year it's day that the madness begins. March 17 is selection Sunday for the NCAA men's basketball tournament, better known in the sporting world as March Madness. Tournament games get underway two days later with the First Four, and run the rest of the month and into April, with the championship game slated for April 8.

The Villanova Wildcats look like a team on a mission. They have steamrolled their way through the NCAA Tournament, winning five straight games by an average margin of 17.8 points per game, and have won every game by a double digits. Just West Virginia and Texas Tech were able to keep the Wildcats within 12 points. Only the Michigan Wolverines stand in the way of Villanova's second title in three years.

There's an 11 seed in the Final Four. Top teams have consistently been toppled throughout the tournament. And yet among all this madness of March, one of the four squads still in the hunt, still standing with a chance to win it all, is a team many predicted before it all started as a club that could win it all, the Villanova Wildcats. But they'll face a tough test against Kansas.

If you were to base the outcomes solely on spread wagering, you would agree with the experts and peg the Villanova Wildcats to win the East Regional and reach the Final Four. Villanova has covered the spread 23 times this season, one behind Michigan for the most in the NCAA. Next with 22 wins against the spread are the Duke Blue Devils, one of four left in the Midwest Regional.

When it comes to betting on the spread, the Michigan Wolverines are the gold standard. The Wolverines and Villanova Wildcats are the NCAA's best teams against the spread in 2017-18, both sporting 23-12-1 records. But what's even more enticing about the Wolverines as a spread wager in the NCAA Tournament is that they are an impressive 11-4-0 against the spread away from Crisler Arena.

There was plenty of criticism that the 23-13 Syracuse Orangemen weren't worthy of consideration for the 2018 NCAA Tournament, even as a First Four participant. They finished 11th overall in the ACC after all, with an 8-10 slate. But coach Jim Boeheim has his 11th-seeded squad playing like world beaters, with wins over the No. 6 (TCU) and No. 3 (Michigan State) seeds in the Midwest Regional.

Seeding? We don't need no stinking seeding. In a year where brackets are being broken as if they were made of glass, nowhere is the March Madness more maddening than in the South and West Regions. The top four seeds in the South have all been sent packing, leaving fifth-seeded Kentucky as the top contender. In the West, both No. 1 Xavier and No. 2 North Carolina are done.

The second day of opening-round action at the NCAA Tournament features a number of games available to be exploited for wagering profit motives. Any 7-10 matchup is always a wise betting choice, because the odds generally work in your favor and there's usually little to choose between the two teams. That's why we like both the Arkansas-Butler contest and the game between Texas and Nevada.