NCAA Basketball Odds – Betting the First Four

Get ready for action, as the NCAA Tournament takes off today with two games in the round of the First Four, part of the new expansion to the tournament.  Let’s bet the NCAA basketball odds for the first play-in game of the 2011 tournament!

UNC-Asheville Bulldogs (19-13) vs. Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans (19-16)

Tuesday, March 15 at 6:30 PM ET

University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio

UNC-Asheville from the Big South conference has strung together six wins in a row to get to the tournament, while the Trojans of Arkansas-Little Rock won the Sun Belt conference with a game-winning shot that helped qualify the team for March Madness.

The NCAA betting odds for this game have the Bulldogs listed as the four-point favorite in the game. Most NCAA betting fans are unfamiliar with these two teams, so which is the better pick?

Note that the Trojans almost did not qualify for the tournament at all, if not for a last-second three-point shot by Solomon Bozeman to win the conference championship game over North Texas.  Talk about a close call!

The majority of the Trojan team is comprised with juniors and seniors, so the team counts on a bit of experience.  However, Arkansas-Little Rock did not win any big games this season over top opponents. Despite a disappointing finish in conference play, the team accomplished four upsets to win the conference tournament.

The Bulldogs, on the other hand, had a few quality losses on the year, dropping games to Georgetown by 15 points and to North Carolina by 11 points. Coming from the Big South conference, the team defeated their toughest conference opponents by more than nine points each game.

However, the feisty and upset-style of play of the Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans seems to be enough to carry this team to cover the spread in this tournament-opening game. If they can be as lucky as they were in the Sun Belt conference championship, they will win this year’s first game of the NCAA tournament.

The winner of this game will face top-seeded Pittsburgh in the Opening Round on March 17.

NCAA Basketball Odds Free Pick – Take the Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans!