Those bettors going with the over in March Madness have not had the best fate through the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In fact, unders have been hitting at an almost-unfathomable clip thus far. Check out the latest March Madness betting trends, including some of the over/under metrics.
March Madness Betting Trends: Are Unders the Play?
Pet BetMGM data analyst John Ewing, the under is 20-8 in all tourney games this year after going 7-1 in the early portion of Friday games. The Iona-UConn game was the only game finishing before the 7:00 ET games that finished over the pregame total. That game closed with an over/under at 141 and soared past when UConn won 87-63 thanks to a 50-point second half from the Huskies.
The report claimed Michigan State-USC (137.5), St. Mary’s-VCU (122.5) and Grand Canyon-Gonzaga (155.5) are the top three most bet overs on Saturday’s March Madness slate. The first two games have already gone under, leaving Gonzaga-Grand Canyon as the last hope.
Gonzaga ranked as the No. 1 best offense (87.5 ppg) throughout the season and kept that going during the West Coast Conference Tournament. They have scored at least 75 points in each of their last nine games since their last loss against St. Marys earlier in the season. Gonzaga avenged that loss with a dominant 77-51 win over St. Marys in the Conference tournament championship game.
Grand Canyon has also shown its scoring prowess of late, winning the WAC Conference Championship to earn a big to the NCAA Tournament. Coming in as the No. 5 seed, Grand Canyon was able to take down WAC heavyweights Sam Houston St. and Southern Utah to earn the opportunity to compete against Gonzaga.
Based on the early going of March Madness play, playing the under could prove to be profitable with casual bettors coming in and raising the over/under total by hammering overs. But it is fair to expect these numbers to even out a bit before too long.
We’ll continue to track these March March Madness betting trends throughout the tournament to see how things change over the next few weeks. You can also check OddsShopper tools to find the best bets for the remainder of the NCAA Tournament!
