NCAAB Player Prop Cheat Sheet
When the UConn Huskies defeated San Diego St. 76-59, winning their fifth NCAA National Championship last March, Adama Sanogo was named the 2023 Tournament MVP.
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Sanogo was a force at both ends of the floor for the Huskies, finishing the championship game with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
The Huskies were a perfect six for six against the spread in the March Madness tournament and finished the season covering the spread in 11 of their last 12 games.
If you are a college basketball fan and enjoy betting on college hoops, read on.
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What Is NCAAB Cheat Sheet?
There are 351 Division I college basketball teams across the US. On any given Saturday, there could be hundreds of different games available for sports bettors to select from.
With many different bet types available for each game, a sports bettor has thousands and thousands of bet options to choose from.
So how can a bettor spend the time and energy required to properly handicap all the available NCAAB bets each weekend to try and determine which ones give us the biggest edge against the sportsbooks?
What Is NCAAB Betting?
When we talk about betting on college basketball, we are referring to betting on the 350+ teams who currently make up the NCAA Division I basketball league.
Most betting action for NCAAB are traditional wagers like Moneyline, Point Spread and Totals (O/U).
Although a few sportsbooks are starting to offer NCAAB player prop odds, most sportsbooks, and sports bettors leave NCAAB player props alone because there is such a limited amount of historical data to make decisions from.
Many states don’t even allow local bettors to wager on local university sports for fear of scandals that could jeopardize the sport and college’s reputations.
However, we must also realize that the NCAA March Madness Tournament is a massive betting success story, with millions of dollars wagered on the tournament each year.
Hardcore hoops fans will start placing their NCAAB bets in November when the season tips off.
The majority of NCAAB bettors come out in March when the Madness of the NCAA Tournament begins.
Most Popular NCAAB Bets
The most popular types of NCAAB bets are moneyline, point spread and totals.
NCAAB Moneyline Betting
When we analyze moneyline bets, the only goal is to pick the winner of the game. There is no need to worry about point spreads and teams winning or losing by a specific total.
Odds are assigned to each team. The more a team is considered the favorite to win the game, the less that team will payout if they do win the game.
Point Spread Betting
Point spread betting might be the most popular NCAAB bet of them all. Because we realize that teams are not always equal, sportsbooks assign a point spread to a game.
The underdog team is gaining extra points, and the favorite is giving up points.
With this point spread handicap now in place, it makes it harder for a bettor to pick which team will win the game.
If the underdog team is getting an extra +5 points before the game starts, from a betting perspective, they can now lose by 4 points or less and still be considered the winning team.
Totals Betting
Totals betting is more commonly referred to as Over/Under betting. For each game, the sportsbooks will set a total. A total is the estimated combined score for both teams.
As a bettor, you must decide if the combined score will be Over (more) or Under (less) the total set by the sportsbook.
As bettors, we often have a feel for whether a game will be offensive or defensive, but we might not be sure which team will ultimately win.
Betting on the total allows us to stay with our offensive or defensive narrative and not have to pick a winner.