Game 1: Oklahoma Sooners @ Baylor Bears - Saturday, February 25
Sports betting experts are continuing to lose faith in a Baylor team that’s gotten whacked by the top schools in the Big12 Conference, the Missouri Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks. However, Baylor is still a very good team, a team that will get a top-5 seeding in the NCAA Tournament. That’s not chopped liver. The Bears have been exposed at a high level, but they’re still the kind of club that does take care of its business against mediocre opponents. Oklahoma would certainly qualify as a mediocre foe. The Sooners became the first Big 12 team to lose to lowly (last-place) Texas Tech this season, and by 18 points at that. The Sooners have definitely made forward strides this season under first-year coach Lon Kruger, a man who has taken several schools to the NCAA Tournament (Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, UNLV) in a highly distinguished career. However, this is just the beginning of the rebuilding process for Oklahoma, whose best days lie in future seasons. Baylor has the horses this season, and the Bears should definitely be able to win on their home court in the second meeting between the two squads in 2012.
College Basketball Betting Pick: Baylor
Game 2: Saint Mary’s Gaels @ San Francisco Dons - Saturday, February 25
When you do your homework and assess your best betting sites on this game, you should realize that San Francisco has a legitimate chance to knock off Saint Mary’s. The Dons were picked to finish third in the West Coast Conference before the season started, due to the belief that they possessed the quickness and athleticism on the perimeter to score at a high rate against the defenses of both Saint Mary’s and WCC powerhouse Gonzaga. San Francisco has underachieved this season, falling to the middle of the conference while Brigham Young and Loyola Marymount have stepped into the third and fourth slots in the conference, but the Dons – playing at home – will be very dangerous in a single-game context. San Francisco wants to ruin the Gaels’ season and force Saint Mary’s to hope for a Gonzaga loss in order to clinch the outright WCC championship. Expect Saint Mary’s, though, to draw a line in the sand and play just enough defense to escape with a victory on the road.
College Basketball Betting Pick: Saint Mary’s
Game 3: Purdue Boilermakers @ Michigan Wolverines - Saturday, February 25
The college basketball betting experts who follow the Big Ten Conference know that Michigan has been exceptionally good at home this season. These same analysts are also aware of the fact that Purdue no longer has the studs in the stable that carried the Boilermakers to the Sweet 16 in 2010 and to a No. 3 NCAA Tournament seed in 2011. Purdue still has a really good shot to make the NCAA Tournament this season, but the Boilers are likely to be a double-digit seed. This is Michigan’s game to lose, and few pundits would disagree with such a claim.
College Basketball Betting Pick: Michigan
