Ncaa Tournament Spread Picks
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- The NCAAB March Madness Tournament this year begins on Thursday, March 18 and the NCAA championship game will be played on Monday, April 5. All games for the 2021 tournament will be played in Indianapolis, Indiana, with match ups contested in Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indiana Farms Coliseum, and more.
- CBSSports.com's College Basketball expert picks provides daily picks for each game during the season.
This game report has an NCAA basketball pick, betting odds, and trends for tonights key matchup. USC Trojans vs UCLA Bruins Prediction, 3/6/2021 College Basketball Pick, Tips and Odds by Parlay's. 2021 NCAA Tournament Upset Bracket Simulation picks, predictions: Model reveals plenty of surprises SportsLine simulated every possible matchup 10,000 times and the team that won over half the simulations was selected to advance.
With two of the best teams in college basketball facing off, what is the best pick? Who has the best sportsbook? Let’s analyze their NCAAB odds to make the best decision.
Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Iowa Hawkeyes
Thursday February 4, 2021 – 7:00 PM EST at Carver-Hawkeye Arena
The Ohio State Buckeyes and Iowa Hawkeyes are battling in the toughest conference in college basketball. As the Big Ten regular season reaches a close, every game matters, and both teams are in a must-win scenario to keep their conference championship hopes alive.
Ohio State has been led by E.J. Liddell for most of the season, and he is part of the reason why the Buckeyes are a top-10 team. Liddell leads the team in points and rebounds.
Iowa has ambitions to make the Final Four thanks to their budding star Luka Garza. Garza has easily been one of the best players in college basketball this season, and he will be a key piece to Iowa’s NCAA Tournament run.
Both teams need a win for their conference records, but they are also hoping to cement their seeding in the NCAA Tournament. Depending on how the rest of the season goes, they could each potentially slide into a top seed. However, those hopes likely die with a loss on Thursday night.
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NCAAB odds favor Iowa by 5.5 points. Can the Hawkeyes cover the spread?
Keys for Iowa to Cover the Spread
Luka Garza will need to dominate this game. Iowa is at its best when Garza can cook. However, it can’t all be on his shoulders. Iowa has great chemistry, and they have used that to get to where they currently are in the standings.
Iowa is one of the most efficient teams in college basketball offensively. They lead the country in assists per game and shoot over 38% from three. They haven’t faced much adversity on the offensive side. They can expect a little against Ohio State, but they still need to dictate the pace of this game.
Due to their style of offense, they sometimes struggle defensively. If they want to beat Ohio State, that is where they must improve. They can keep pace offensively, but they can’t continue to allow so many points on the defensive side of the ball.
Iowa also needs to make more free throws. For such an efficient offensive team, they have an average free-throw percentage. If this game gets close towards the end, free throws will determine who wins.
Keys for Ohio State to Cover the Spread
One weakness when comparing Ohio State to Iowa is size. The Buckeyes have no one who can match Garza physically. Because of this, they need to be creative with how they try to stop him. Expect traps and double teams when Garza has the ball in his hands. While this is a risk, you have to step in the gap and stop his drive.
Ohio State also has a history of foul trouble this season. Liddell averages over 3 fouls a game. If their best players are unavailable at the end of the game due to fouls, the Buckeyes won’t be able to win on the road.
With the size disadvantage, you have to worry about rebounding. Iowa is one of the best rebounding teams in college basketball. Ohio State doesn’t have to get offensive rebounds often, but they at least need to hold their own defensively. If you give Garza and the Hawkeyes multiple shots on possession, you cannot keep up.
This will be a hard game to win. Playing on the road won’t help matters. However, there is a case for both teams to win. What is the best pick?
Time for a Pick
Ohio State has more momentum than the Hawkeyes, but they do not match up physically. The size of Iowa might be too much to handle. The best way to overcome size mismatches are with winning the foul game and draining perimeter shots. The Buckeyes are a great team, but those are not in their wheelhouse.
I expect Iowa to win at home. This NCAAB line feels right, but I’ll still take the Hawkeyes to barely cover. At the end of the day, I think Garza will dominate.
NCAAB Pick: Iowa -5.5 (-105) at Bovada (visit our Bovada Review)
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*The pick reflects the line at the moment the writer made the play, the odds at the beginning of this article show the live line movement. Since the lines might vary, don’t forget to refer back to our live odds.