Looking at 5 Sunday college games from a basketball betting perspective:

1. Ordinarily a team off such an important win as Temple’s 49-41 smothering of Dayton would be a candidate for a letdown.  But the Big 5 is still important in Philadelphia and if 8-point favorite Temple can beat LaSalle they’ll be the first Temple team to go 5-0 in the intra-city series since the Mark Macon-led 1987-88 squad.  Since their blowout loss at Richmond, the Owls have held their four opponents combined to less than 34% from the field, with none of those teams shooting any higher than 40%.

2. UConn hosts Louisville in a game with the vibe of a postseason affair.   Pointspread watchers may see the Cardinals “surge” as an illusion, as the only game that Pitino’s charges have covered in their last 6 affairs was the outright upset win at Syracuse.  The Cardinal is on a 3-10 pointspread run overall.   Meanwhile, UConn is suddenly popular among sports bettors, as they’ve won and covered three in a row, including outright upsets over West Virginia and Villanova.  Previously the Huskies had a potential massive outright upset thwarted by the officials in Syracuse.  A win by either club here may wrap up a tourney berth.

3. The Michigan State/Purdue game today is compelling, and even moreso with Robbie Hummel out for the Boilermakers.  But the rest of the conference today?  Egads.  If you don’t have the Big 10 Network, well, no big deal.  All you’re missing is Indiana at Iowa at 6PM EST. Indiana has lost 9 straight and failed to cover 6 straight.   Iowa has lost 8 of 9.  Iowa wasted Indiana 58-43 earlier this season in Bloomington as 6-point road dogs, holding the homestanding Hoosiers without a 3-point field goal in 9 tries.  Ironically, at a slow time in the sports day this game will be prominently featured on the big screens in Las Vegas sports books.  Iowa is favored by 6, and that’s a spread range that they’re not terribly familiar with.

4. The earlier Big 10 game is no prize either.  Penn State is favored by 2 over a Northwestern team that is in unfriendly pointspread territory, as this is only the second time that Vegas and online sportsbooks haven’t had Northwestern taking 7.5 points or more in a conference road game.  The other outlier was when Northwestern lost by 13 at Iowa as a small road favorite.   Previously considered to be a potential NCAA tourney team, Northwestern has managed to lose to both Iowa (2-12 in the rest of their conference games) and Penn State (1-13 in their other conference games).  

5. Fortunately, despite the ugly affairs provided by a few “power conferences” there is a real beauty between a pair of underrated teams in the strong Atlantic 10 on ESPN2 this afternoon.   Overlooked Xavier and underrated Richmond are two teams with potential to do some damage in the NCAA tournament.   It is clearly Sunday’s most attractive matchup, and you’ll be a little bit better prepared for March Madness if you try to catch it.

Good luck on Sunday, and be careful.

With a typically massive college basketball lineup on Saturday, let’s take a look at five items of interest in today’s hoop action.

1. The marquee matchup on Saturday night is Villanova at Syracuse in front of the largest on-campus crowd in the history of the sport.  The total in this game is a daunting proposition, as Syracuse games don’t have a lot of fouls called while Villanova fouls a ton and gets fouled as well.  Syracuse games average 37 free throws attempted, the average Villanova game has 54 opportunities from the stripe.  No surprise that ‘nova games are high, with 156 average points in Villanova games, which is 10 points more than the 146 seen in the typical Syracuse contest.

 2. Georgia Tech takes on Boston College in an early start in Atlanta, and it will be interesting to see how the Yellow Jackets react to Coach Paul Hewitt challenging Tech fans and his critics.  Having a coach in open debate with his fans and media during a season is unique, but maybe the players will see it as their coach having their back and will play well. Tech opened a 7.5-favorite at Las Vegas and online sportsbooks.  Tech fans disappointed in the Jackets would be surprised to learn that Hewitt’s club is 13-8 against the spread.

3. Tennessee isn’t playing terrific ball right now, but they might catch Kentucky at the right time.  The Wildcats had a fairly easy time of it beating South Carolina in a 9PM EST game on Thursday night and now have to play at noon against the Vols.  Lexington to Knoxville is a short trip, but the schedulemaker doesn’t do UK any favors with a late Thursday game followed by traveling to play at noon.  

4. USC takes on Oregon State tonight after a Thursday night second half collapse against Oregon that was as bad a half of basketball as you’ll ever seen.  Leading by 9 at the half, the Trojans permitted a dreadful Oregon team to outscore them 31-12 in the second half in the 54-44 loss.   After a 14-0 Oregon run earlier in the half, the Ducks closed with a 12-0 run to close things out. Senior starters Mike Gerrity (scoreless) and Dwight Lewis (3 for 14 from the field) were terrible for the Trojans.  Southern Cal opened a 7-point favorite over OSU at Vegas and offshore sportsbooks.

5. Streak players will have trouble making up their mind in the matchup between West Coast Conference dregs San Diego and Pepperdine tonight.  If you take away their previous win and cover in this “rivalry”, San Diego is on an 0-10-1 run against the spread.  Meanwhile, the Waves are 0-8 to the number recently.

Good luck this weekend, and be careful. 

Las Vegas’ M Resort, about 8 miles closer to California than the strip hotels, has an intersting sports betting model, as they hired investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald’s wagering unit, Cantor Wagering, to run their sports book.   

Articles in Fortune and the Wall Street Journal highlighted Cantor’s focus on in-game wagering and the innovative mobile eDeck sports betting unit that allows visitors to bet from anywhere within the casino.  But what the media is missing is that in an era of casino companies being risk averse in the sports book, the M is taking the biggest bets in town.   Serious bettors I know are spending a lot of time at the M.

Sports betting isn’t all the property has to offer.  There’s much more open space than most casinos and it’s clean modern design sets it apart from it’s strip competition.  A top floor bar offers superior vistas of the entire Las Vegas Valley.  Factor in the creative sports betting options and it is definitely worth a visit on your next trip to Vegas.

Here are a handful of items of interest to those interested in betting the college and NBA basketball card on Thursday night. 

1. If you’re looking for UCLA to bounce back from their embarrassing 97-68 blowout loss at Washington last weekend, you’ll want to be on top of the Bruins’ injury situation for their game against Oregon State tonight.  The frontcourt is thin for Ben Howland’s troops as Reeves Nelson (11 points, 5.8 rebounds per game) is out for the weekend after eye surgery and Brendan Lane’s status is up in the air after he injured his ankle in practice this week.  Lane only averages 2.2 points per game, but had a season high 11 in the loss up in Seattle.  In Nelson’s absence his status is more important than it would be otherwise.  The Bruins are favored by 5 on their home floor tonight.

2. Another Pac Ten frontcourt with injury issues is Cal’s.  The Golden Bears have backup center Max Zhang out with a collapsed lung, Markhuri Sanders-Frison playing through some back issues and Omondi Amoke suffering with some shoulder issues.  First-place Cal is the favorite to pull down their first regular season conference title since 1960, but have a tough weekend ahead with Arizona tonight and Arizona State on Saturday.

3. Arizona State, a team benefitting from contributions throughout a deep roster,  heads to Stanford tonight.  The Sun Devils are a 2.5-point favorite at Vegas and online sportsbooks.  Stanford is 5-1 straight up against conference foes at home despite having only 5 scholarship players available for several of those games.

4. Wisconsin has played 6 of their last 9 games at home, but return to the conference road tonight with a trip to Bloomington, Indiana to face the Hoosiers.   Their status as 11-point favorites at Vegas and online sportsbooks seems reasonable considering Indiana has lost 8 in a row, and in failing to cover their last 5 has lost each of those games by 14 points or more.   Those close to the program insist the Hoosiers are getting better, but this already thin club is still trying to recover from not only the Kelvin Sampson era but key injury losses earlier this season.

5. Thursday’s NBA card appears to be headlined by the Cavaliers/Celtics clash, but that game loses some luster if Paul Pierce doesn’t play.  Doc Rivers suggests that it is “most likely” that Pierce doesn’t go tonight, as he is suffering from both the flu and a bad thumb.  The Celtics look like a team in decline and continue to disappoint bettors with a miserable 6-18 pointspread mark on their home court.

Some news and notes for college basketball bettors as we head into the weekend.

1. North Carolina is not only 2-10 against the spread in their last 12 games, but those 10 non-covers have been by a combined 116.5 points to the pointspread.   How did this team beat Ohio State, blow out Michigan State, and lose to Kentucky in Lexington by only 2 back in December?   With yet another injury to one of their bigs, Ed Davis has a broken wrist and may be out for the season.  But on this team with 7 McDonald’s All-Americans, nobody is stepping up.

2. Pierre Henderson-Niles has left the Memphis basketball team with just 8 games left in his college career.  While the burly Henderson-Niles is best known for a near-brawl with fans at UAB last season, and is limited offensively, the Tigers do lose their second leading rebounder.  But when you look at the bizarre series of social media posts by Henderson-Niles you have to wonder if he was a malcontent and if the Tigers will be better off not having him around.

3. You’ve heard of road/home differential, but the Washington Huskies are ridiculous.  After their blowout loss at Cal on Thursday night, Washington remains winless away from Seattle.  Away from home, Lorenzo Romar’s charges are 0-7 straight up, 0-7 against the spread, and have lost those 7 games by a combined 78 and failing to cover the pointspread set by Vegas and online sportsbooks by a remarkable 74 points.   Unfortunately for our purposes, Saturday’s game at Stanford looks like a case of go-against vs. go-against.

4. Georgia is improving, but have trouble handling prosperity. If they win again, know that since Christmas they have lost immediately after all 4 of their wins.   3 of those were double digit covers.

5.  OK, amidst all this negativity, let’s point out a bright spot.  After a 5-11 start, including 0-5 in Missouri Valley Conference play, Drake has reeled off a 9-2 pointspread streak, failing only to cover in their two games against Valley dominator Northern Iowa.  Unheralded second-year coach Mark Phelps has done a great job keeping the Bulldogs together and competitive through the grind of a very physical conference.  

Good luck this weekend, and be careful.

First, look to avoid all props that have multiple results possible. Turn the odds into a probability percentage (like 3-1=25%, 4-1=20%, etc.) add them up and some of these things are at 180% (an 80% takeout) or more.   Look to bet yes/no, over/under, team vs. team, etc. You can find good things even with 30 cent lines (the equivalent of -115 on both sides).  The juice built into bets like “first player to score TD” and “margin of victory” is enormous. 

Secondly, take your weak books and compare their props to what the lines are for the same props at strong books that have been hammered over mutliple days.   You can find bets that are -170 at a sharp book that your weak or local book has at -115 for the same prop.  I find good plays every year simply by comparing and contrasting. Good luck in the Super Bowl.