Friday the 13th . . . Plus one
Feeling lucky on Friday the 13th?
You’ll have plenty of chances to prove it today. Thirteen conference tournaments roll on and one more — the Ivy League — tips off.
📅 Tournament Starting Friday
Yale is the -110 favorite to win the four-team Ivy League Tournament, but Adam Burke makes the case for a longshot.
👉 Adam‘s Ivy League preview and prediction
👉 VSiN’s Conference Tournament Hub
💰 Betting Insight for Friday
Steve Makinen told me his favorite trend for today’s action comes from the ACC:
ACC semifinal underdogs are 14-21 SU but 25-7-3 ATS (78.1%) since 2007, and 12-2-1 ATS since 2017. Both won ATS again a year ago.
That means plays on Miami (+4.5 vs. Virginia) and Clemson (+11.5 vs. Duke).
Steve’s Big Ten trend on playing against teams that have byes went 2-2 on Thursday. Four Big Ten teams with byes are playing today.
👉 Steve’s mid-major conference tournament trends
👉 Steve’s power conference tournament trends
VSiN’s experts are sharing their picks for today.
Later this morning:
• Adam will post his top plays
• Josh Appelbaum will break down the market moves
👉More picks on our college basketball page
FYI: “The Angle,” discovered by Follow The Money producer Luke DiVasta, went 1-1 last night and is 46-21 since Luke started tracking it.
👉 Check here today to see if Luke has any system matches.
The most important betting week of the year
Selection Sunday is almost here, which means VSiN’s Sharp Week is about to begin — our annual deep dive into the NCAA Tournament betting board.
What we’ll have for you:
- Special programming on Selection Sunday:
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- Sharp Week: Bracket Breakdown (4-8 p.m. ET) — Tim Murray and Jonathan Von Tobel will react to the matchups as odds are posted.
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- Sharp Week: Betting The Bracket (8-10 p.m. ET) — Matt Youmans and Greg Peterson will help you fill out your brackets.
- The March Mania Betting Guide will be published on Monday with team profiles, power ratings, matchup analysis and Cinderella candidates.
👉 See everything planned for Sharp Week
🎲 Contest Corner
Two VSiN contests are coming for next week’s Big Dance.
VSiN March Betting Contest
Make 44 ATS or Total picks from Round 1 through the national championship with $6,000 in prizes and a trip at Vegas at stake.
👉Read the rules — and register for free
$1 Million High Stakes Survivor Madness
Pick 10 teams to win outright from Round 1 through the title game.
The twist: You can’t pick the same team twice.
If your team wins, you survive and advance.
$1 million to the ultimate survivor(s).
$1000 fee per entry.
👉 Contest details and registration
Zach Cohen’s NBA Report
Thursday night recap
While the Magic needed overtime to beat the Wizards, the “braindead parlay” cashed at around -138 odds. However, if you listened to Hardwood Handicappers Thursday morning, you might have joined me and added the Pistons. That took it down to -110.
Ugly Friday slate
The Prime Video doubleheader is Cavaliers-Mavericks at 7:30 p.m. ET and Timberwolves-Warriors at 10 p.m. ET. With Stephen Curry still out for Golden State, I wouldn’t consider either of those contests to be must-watch games. The best game on the slate could be Suns-Raptors, which tips in Toronto at 7:30. That’s at least a meeting between two healthy-ish playoff teams.
Tanking parlay
We definitely have our options, as Detroit hosts Memphis, New York takes on Indiana, Cleveland should handle Dallas, Portland welcomes Utah, and Chicago plays the second leg of a back-to-back in Los Angeles (only it’s the Clippers this time).
👉 Zach’s Best Bets and Steve Makinen‘s Analytics Report will hit around mid-morning on our NBA page.
Horse Racing: Derby prep Best Bets
The VSiN At The Track podcast features betting previews of this weekend’s top races, including the Virginia Derby.
Mike Somich and Aaron Halterman rank the Kentucky Derby contenders by revealing their #1 seeds (a nod to the NCAA Tournament) and explain why NOT to bet the new Octafecta Jackpot Wager at Turfway Park.
