Conference Tournament Betting Tips
March 4, 2022
Big East Tournament Odds and Picks
March 7, 2022
The Davidson Wildcats won the Atlantic 10 regular season title. However, it’s not Bob McKillop’s squad that invades Washington, D.C. the odds on favorite at FanDuel Sportsbook to cut the nets down in the Capital One Arena. That distinction goes to the Dayton Flyers who closed the regular season out scorching hot winning seven of its final eight games to land the No. 2 overall seed. That bold take is backed by the folks at TeamRankings.com who give DaRon Holmes II and his mates a near 24 percent chance of living up to its top billing; Davidson checks in right behind them with a near 20 percent chance. With five teams clocking in with at least 20 wins and others with some nice pieces that could make some noise, the A10 tourney is a tough one to call. This tourney has seen a different entrant win it each of the last six seasons, and it’s even more wide open now than it ever was. Will the cream rise to the top, or will a squad defy the odds and come from out of nowhere to be the last team standing? Regardless, here are my favorite, underdog and longshot selections to make things interesting leading up to Sunday’s finale.
A10 Tournament Odds at FanDuel Sportsbook
Dayton +270
Davidson +340
VCU +420
Saint Bonaventure +480
Saint Louis +750
Richmond +1000
George Mason +1800
Rhode Island +9000
UMass +9500
GW/Fordham +20000
La Salle/Saint Joe’s/Duquesne +50000
Favorite to Bet: Dayton Flyers +270
Currently representing one of Joe Lunardi’s First Four out in his current Bracketology installment, the Flyers will be playing for their NCAA tournament lives over the next few days. While they’d be granted a solid seed in the NIT should they fail, you know darn well they’ll hit the hardwood hunting for larger game. A rough start to the season put the Flyers behind the proverbial 8-ball, but no team in the A10 has been hotter than Dayton going back to early January. Since dropping a tough 1-point decision at home to VCU, the team has rattled off wins in 14 of their last 17 played games. On top of that, they went a bankroll boosting 12-5 versus the college basketball betting odds in those contests. Though the roster is void of a superstar, it still goes eight deep with each logging 19+ minutes per game. Dayton ranks No. 70 in offensive efficiency and shoots at a high clip from both the field (No. 29) and beyond the arc (No. 36). A glaring weakness does however surface from the charity stripe (No. 286). Defensively, the Flyers give up just north of 60 points per game and are tough to score on close to the rack (No. 30). This is a well-rounded team that will be playing with purpose. That’s a nice combo to back in a win or go home format.
Underdog to Bet: St. Bonaventure Bonnies +480
The Bonnies were the class of the conference a season ago taking home both the regular season and tournament titles. The start of the A10 season didn’t treat this year’s team kindly, but Mark Schmidt started pushing some different buttons and the team reacted positively. Since dropping back-to-back decisions to Davidson and @Richmond to kick off the month of February, St. Bonaventure has come out on the right side of the scoreboard in eight of their last nine games (6-2-1 ATS). It closed the year by avenging an earlier season loss to those aforementioned Spiders. That being said, its lone defeat came against VCU which represented the only opponent faced that ranked out in the upper tier of the conference standings. This team is nowhere near as good as last year’s, but it’s starting five – led by Jalen Adaway (16.0 PPG) – is ultra-competitive. Earning the No. 4 seed allowed it to snag the double bye. That’s huge in a tourney like this due to it limiting the amount of minutes needed to be exerted to win it all. The draw is pretty solid as well with it likely to oppose a St. Louis team it swept (2-0 ATS) and Davidson whom it dropped a tough 81-76 decision to at home. That however was all the way back on February 1, and much has changed since then.
Longshot to Bet: Richmond Spiders +1000
In my heart of hearts, I truly don’t think there’s a team other than the top-four that ultimately goes on to win this thing. That being said, the Spiders 10-1 return on investment is enticing enough for me to throw some beer money on Richmond’s fantastic big man duo to see if the team has it in them to make a run. Tyler Burton (16.5 PPG/7.4 RPG) and Grant Golden (14.4 PPG/6.3 RPG) are no joke, but the offense is going to need someone to step up from the outside to prevent opposing defenses from crashing down on them anytime they get the ball. Paging Jacob Gilyard; Jacob Gilyard, you’re our only hope! I watched that kid light Davidson up back in mid-January to the point of draining 5 of 9 three-balls to log a team-high 28 points. The back and forth between he and Michael Jones was a sight to see. Save for going off for 31 points the following game against Fordham, he only managed 20+ points once in the Spiders final 13 games. The kid needs to rediscover that magic touch for Richmond to make any type of noise since the path to the finals won’t be easy with VCU and Dayton likely to be on the docket.
