{"id":3813,"date":"2009-03-16T11:36:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-16T16:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/03\/2009-ncaa-tournament-brackets-up-march-madness-odds-updated-for-big-dance\/"},"modified":"2009-03-16T11:36:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-16T16:36:00","slug":"2009-ncaa-tournament-brackets-up-march-madness-odds-updated-for-big-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/03\/2009-ncaa-tournament-brackets-up-march-madness-odds-updated-for-big-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"2009 NCAA Tournament Brackets Up; March Madness Odds Updated For Big Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=Section1>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\">March Madness betting<\/a> is here! Selection Sunday has passed and, while for the next few days we&#8217;ll be discussing who got in and who didn&#8217;t, soon our attention will finally turn to the games tournament itself. <\/span><\/font><st1:City><st1:place>Louisville<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>, <st1:City><st1:place>Pittsburgh<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>, UConn and <st1:State><st1:place>North   Carolina<\/st1:place><\/st1:State> each earned No. 1 seeds, with <st1:City><st1:place>Louisville<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> getting the biggest &#8220;home court&#8221; advantage. The Cardinals play in the <st1:place>Midwest<\/st1:place> region, which is within driving distance for their fans, a luxury the other schools won&#8217;t enjoy. Keep that in mind when you&#8217;re choosing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/betting-edge\/default.aspx?PageName=March-Madness-odds&amp;WebContentID=768\">March Madness odds<\/a>, because it could give <st1:City><st1:place>Louisville<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> a big boost.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><st1:State><st1:place><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span   style='font-size:12.0pt'>North Carolina<\/span><\/font><\/st1:place><\/st1:State> still leads the way in terms of odds. Here&#8217;s how it breaks down for the top five teams:<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><st1:State><st1:place><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span   style='font-size:12.0pt'>North Carolina<\/span><\/font><\/st1:place><\/st1:State>: 2-1<br \/> Pitt: 4-1<br \/> <st1:City><st1:place>Louisville<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>: 9-2<br \/> <st1:State><st1:place>Connecticut<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>: 5-1<br \/> <st1:City><st1:place>Memphis<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>: 10-1<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The action gets underway on Thursday at <\/span><\/font><st1:time Hour=\"12\" Minute=\"20\">12:20 p.m. ET<\/st1:time>, when No. 8 LSU and No. 9 Butler square off. That game will be followed by 15 more, making for an incredible basketball blowout. If you can&#8217;t wait until Thursday, you can always catch the play-in game between <st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Morehead<\/st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>State<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place> and <st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Alabama<\/st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>State<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place>, which takes place Tuesday at <st1:time Hour=\"19\" Minute=\"30\">7:30 p.m. ET<\/st1:time>.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Yes, there are actually sporting events happening other than March Madness right now. In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/betting-edge\/basketball\">NBA betting<\/a>, Dwight Howard had an absolute monster game for the Magic on Sunday, posting 28 points and 20 rebounds. It carried <\/span><\/font><st1:City><st1:place>Orlando<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> to a 105-87 win over the Jazz and was Howard&#8217;s 21<sup>st<\/sup> game with 20 or more points and rebounds since 2004-<span class=GramE>2005,<\/span> the most in the NBA (Kevin Garnett is second with eight).<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Speaking of Garnett, he was out of action again this weekend because of injury. <\/span><\/font><st1:City><st1:place>Boston<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> dropped an 86-77 decision to the pitiful <st1:City><st1:place>Milwaukee<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> bucks, and it was the Celtics&#8217; third loss in their past four games. <st1:City><st1:place>Boston<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> turned the ball over a season-high 25 times.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Of course, you can&#8217;t mention the NBA without LeBron James. He chipped in 19 points in a 98-93 victory over the Knicks. Not only did it improve <\/span><\/font><st1:City><st1:place>Cleveland<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> to 29-1 at home, but it clinched the Central Division for the Cavaliers. LeBron also added 10 assists and eight boards.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/betting-edge\/World-Baseball-Classic-odds-785.aspx\">World Baseball Classic betting<\/a>, the <\/span><\/font><st1:country-region><st1:place>Netherlands<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>&#8216; magical run finally came to an end, as the Dutch fell 9-3 to Team <st1:country-region><st1:place>USA<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.&nbsp; Jimmy Rollins led the way for the Americans, hitting a homer, triple, and driving in four runs. Starter Roy Oswalt pitched four scoreless innings. The Americans are one loss away from elimination, and they&#8217;ll face either <st1:place>Puerto  Rico<\/st1:place> or <st1:country-region><st1:place>Venezuela<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> on Tuesday night, with lefty Ted Lilly expected to go to the mound. Expect some tight <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/sportsbook\">sportsbook<\/a> odds in that one.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Get all the March Madness betting winners at <b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><font color=blue><span style='color:blue; font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.offshoreinsiders.com\/\">OffshoreInsiders.com<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/b><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>\u00a0 <\/span><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>\u00a0<\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.offshoreinsiders.com\/\"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>OffshoreInsiders.com<\/b><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March Madness betting is here! Selection Sunday has passed and, while for the next few days we&#8217;ll be discussing who got in and who didn&#8217;t, soon our attention will finally turn to the games tournament itself. Louisville, Pittsburgh, UConn and North Carolina each earned No. 1 seeds, with Louisville getting the biggest &#8220;home court&#8221; advantage. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/03\/2009-ncaa-tournament-brackets-up-march-madness-odds-updated-for-big-dance\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">2009 NCAA Tournament Brackets Up; March Madness Odds Updated For Big Dance<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}