Women’s basketball analyst Dani Bar-Lavi here with my best women’s basketball bet for March 24. The first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament wrapped up yesterday, and it was the chalkiest in NCAA history, with the higher seed winning an unprecedented 31 of the 32 first-round matchups (shout out No. 11 Middle Tennessee for breaking the mold in their upset of No. 6 Louisville). Today is a new round, and a new day, however. I’m not backing down on dogs.
Let’s jump into my best women’s basketball bet for today’s slate of March Madness action, which comes in the Baylor-Virginia Tech game. if you’re hungry for more college basketball content, check out our other college basketball articles and college basketball betting tools!
Women’s March Madness Best Bet: Baylor-Virginia Tech
I wrote a bit about the No. 5 seed Baylor Lady Bears in my Futures Preview article earlier this week ahead of the first round. To reiterate a bit, the Bears have been an underrated team all season, boasting a 25-7 record with impressive wins against No. 1 Texas and No. 5 Utah back during non-conference play.
Nikki Collen, the head coach of the Bears, is an extremely competent leader and decision-maker with WNBA pedigree, having joined Baylor after leaving the Atlanta Dream.
The Lady Bears rank ninth nationwide in defensive rating, holding opponents to 80.6 points per 100 possessions. They are particularly skilled at guarding the 3-point shot, allowing 25.9% shooting from deep, fourth in the country.
Baylor’s 3-point defense will be particularly key in this matchup, as No. 4 Virginia Tech will look to run its offense through 3-point specialists like Georgia Amoore in the absence of star post Elizabeth Kitley. Kitley was injured during the ACC Tournament semifinals and as such will not be making an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
The Hokies looked fine without Kitley in the first round, lighting up No. 13 Marshall in a 92-49 blowout.
However, this Kitley-less version of Virginia Tech struggled against higher-level competition, losing 82-53 to No. 2 Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament Finals. Baylor has the personnel to make life difficult for the Hokies. This line is sitting at Virginia Tech -3.5 at most books, which per my numbers is not adjusted for Kitley’s absence. With that factored in, I’d set this closer to Baylor -1.
Best Women’s March Madness Bet Today: Baylor +3.5/Baylor Moneyline at DraftKings
