#march-madness

#march-madness

UNC Wilmington is outscoring opponents by 9.1 points per game with a +300 scoring differential overall. It puts up 76.8 points per game and gives up 67.7 per contest.

Duke set the tone early by making it difficult for Charleston to get into any rhythm offensively. The Cougars shot just 19% in the first half and trailed 45-26.

Iowa is the No. 9 seed but a slight favorite over Clemson with the game tipping off at 6:50 pm ET on TNT. Iowa has a spread of -2.5 and a moneyline of -130.

Cameron Boozer has scored at least 30 points four times this season, and his season high is 35 points. He accomplished that feat twice. First, it was on November 14 in a win over Indiana State. He did it again on November 27 in a win over Arkansas. In the game against Indiana State, he was 13/16 from the field and had 12 rebounds. Against Arkansas, he was 13/18 from the field with 9 rebounds.

Howard University's sports have been a punchline or worse my whole life, and since before I was even around, and that's a mighty long time. I learned too much about Howard's athletic awfulness when I covered D.C. sports for Washington City Paper beginning in the 1990s. My education started when I wrote about the school's 1996 basketball team, which was in the middle of the worst losing streak in the NCAA at the time.

The men's NCAA Basketball Tournament begins on Tuesday, March 17 with two of the First Four matchups. These are the four games that are used to determine the final four teams in the main 64-team bracket. To some, they're known as the "play-in games" although they've officially been part of the men's tournament since 2011.

Bart Torvik's T-Rank is such a staple within the college basketball community that the predictive team ranking metric is on the list of criteria that the NCAA Selection Committee uses to determine the field. But Bart Torvik goes much deeper than just one number. It's a hub for team and player statistics, with a deep repository of free data.

Underdog Fantasy is primarily known as a daily fantasy sports platform, but it has grown into one of the more versatile options for college basketball. During March Madness, Underdog typically offers player pick markets where you select whether a specific player will go over or under a projected stat line. These picks usually cover categories like points, rebounds, assists, three-pointers made, and combined stats like points plus rebounds plus assists.

Duke, Arizona, Michigan, and defending champion Florida are the four No. 1 seeds, and are heavy favorites to win their first round matchups. In the First Four, UMBC is a slight favorite over Howard and NC State are slight favorites over Texas.