You ready?

As we move deep into the month of March, we inch ever closer to the 2010 March Madness bracket tournament and the madness that ensues each and every spring in college basketball. With just one week remaining in conference play, the right to automatic bids are already up for grabs.

On that note, here are the top five teams lording over the college basketball right now, starting with the best of ‘em all, the Syracuse Orange. Syracuse’s rise to the top of the national polls produced an Orange infusion in the college basketball power rankings.

The Orange’s 95-77 victory Saturday over Villanova helped Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim regain his position as the no.1 coach in the power rankings too, them rankings that measure the nation’s top performers at each position. Picked before the season to finish sixth in the Big East, Syracuse already has clinched at least a share of the conference title. With a 27-2 overall record and an incredibly effective two-three zone defensive scheme, Syracuse should be the team to beat once the brackets are here.

Following at the second spot are the Kansas Jayhawks. After suffering their first conference loss, the Jayhawks are determined to bounce back. Coach Bill Self said, ”I am believing we can get something out of (the OSU loss). I don’t think the thing is broken. I do think we need to evaluate our things. We need to take great pride in the things that help us win, especially this time of year.”

The loss at Oklahoma State could be a sign of fate for Kansas as the last time the Jayhawks visited Stillwater back in 2008, they suffered a one-point defeat. Then they went on to win out, capturing the NCAA title. The defeat also meant that the only team to ever go undefeated in Big 12 play remains the 2001-02 Jayhawks squad coached by…

You ready to rake in some cash on March?

What’s the biggest betting event of the year in North America? Not so fast if you guessed the Super Bowl. While the Super Bowl lays claim to being the largest wagered event of the year, March Madness surpasses the NFL’s crown jewel in total wagering volume, probably because the tourney stretches over three weeks.

There is still a little more than a month of college basketball to be played this 2010 NCAA college basketball season before Selection Sunday, but the talk of ”Bubble” teams and tournament seeds is starting to heat up as we hit the most exciting part of the NCAA hoops schedule.

One of the marquee games of every college b-ball schedule, Duke Blue Devils vs. North Carolina Tar Heels, tipped off already. It was the spotlight game for sports bettors as well, as it attracted the most action on the board. The sports betting public scored a solid win as the Tar Heels took it on the chin.

Online sportsbooks had Duke as a -5.5-point favorite, a number they easily covered and with approximately 75 percent of all the betting volume on the Blue Devils, it was a winner for the players. While NC won the NCAA basketball championship last season, they lost power forward Tyler Hansbrough to the NBA and have been a shadow of their former selves this season.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are near the bottom of the…

There sure have been a couple of HUGE surprises last week.

Admit it, the way Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford came back to the field last weekend caught most of you off guard. Hopefully, they didn’t make you lose that much dough. Coming to Week 7 of the 2009 NCAA college football season, we’ll get you ready and hyped up for this weekend’s games so you won’t make the same mistakes twice.

Coming from their first win over a Football Bowl Subdivision team in nearly a year, the Louisville Cardinals gun for back to back victories over another when they play the Connecticut Huskies Saturday night.

Ryan Payne kicked a 32-yard field goal with 30 seconds left to play to give Louisville its first FBS win, 25-23, over Southern Mississippi. Wide receiver Scott Long had a career day for the Cardinals, with 146 yards receiving on five catches, plus a touchdown.

The Connecticut Huskies, meanwhile, look to bounce back from a disheartening loss they suffered against Pittsburgh. Connecticut (3-2, 0-1 in Big East) led 21-6 after Andre Dixon scored on a 2-yard run to end a 61-yard drive with 3:56 remaining in the third quarter. But Pitt quarterback Bill Stull, who made several major mistakes in the first half, found Jonathan Baldwin on a 26-yard scoring pass play set up by Dion Lewis’ 32-yard run to cut it to 21-13 before eventually stealing the game from…

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Clemson Tigers

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Florida State Seminoles

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Maryland Terrapins

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NC State Wolfpack

North Carolina Tar Heels

Virginia Cavaliers

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Bittersweet, that’s the feeling for sports bettors as they head into Final Four weekend.

On one hand, there is sure to be some great basketball served up by the remaining four teams in the 2009 NCAA Final Four, but on the other hand, the college basketball season will crown a champ and turn out the lights for another season in a few days.

The futures betting has been steady on the four remaining teams, with the Connecticut Huskies listed at +250 to win the NCAA national championship, the Michigan State Spartans at +500, the North Carolina Tar Heels the odds-on favorite at -125 and the Villanova Wildcats listed as long shots at +600.

Bettors have been enamored with the North Carolina Tar Heels all tournament, and that hasn’t changed this week. According to SPORTSBETTING.COM, Tyler Hansbrough and crew have received a little over 50 percent of all the wagering volume on the ”who will win the championship” future odds option.

Not surprisingly, the other no.1 seed left standing, that being the Connecticut Huskies, are running second with the sports betting public, grabbing 30 percent of the wagering action.

It all tips-off on Saturday and in the first semifinal…

The final four teams in college basketball will collide this weekend.

The cliché ”time flies when you’re having fun” is an old and dusty one, but it really holds true when it comes to the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament.

It seems like it was only yesterday when it was just Selection Sunday and with a blink of an eye, the opening round, the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight are all in the rearview mirror and now, the 2009 NCAA Final Four is here.

Last year, there weren’t really any surprises as each of top four seeds; the Memphis Tigers, the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Kansas Jayhawks and the UCLA Bruins all made the Final Four.

While there are two no.1 seeds this year with the North Carolina Tar Heels (again) and the Connecticut Huskies making it, the Michigan State Spartans and the Villanova Wildcats decided to crash the party as well, shocking some college hoops fans in the process.

Of the four, SPORTSBETTING.COM has UNC as the odds-on favorite to win the NCAA championship at -125 followed by the Connecticut Huskies at +250. Michigan State is listed at +500 and Villanova at +600.

Listed as a -7.5 point favorite, North Carolina will try to prevent the Villanova Wildcats from reliving its magical 1985 run (shocked Georgetown), while UConn, favored by 4.5-points, will…

Are you ready?

Michigan State, Connecticut, Villanova and North Carolina are all in the 2009 NCAA Final Four as the Big Dance begins Saturday at Detroit’s Ford Field. This sets up several compelling connections to tournament lore.

Let’s start with the Michigan State Spartans. The Spartans not only get to play 90 miles from its East Lansing campus but returns to the Final Four for the 30th anniversary of its 1979 NCAA title. The famous showdown between Indiana State’s Larry Bird and Michigan State’s Magic Johnson that season helped shaped college basketball.

Detroit is an extension of home. The comforts are a reward for the Big Ten regular season champions, who are 9-0 all-time as a no.2 seed, the same seed Michigan State earned for the 1979 title run. Using stifling defense and Goran Suton’s offense, the Spartans manhandled top overall seed Louisville last Sunday.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo reached his fifth Final Four, all since 1999, joining the ranks of coaches such as Bob Knight, Lute Olson, Guy Lewis and Rick Pitino. MSU’s 2000 championship is the Big Ten’s most recent national title.

Two teams from the mighty Big East qualified, one shy of the record set by their conference in the 1985 Final Four, as the Connecticut Huskies and the Villanova Wildcats make up half of the Final Four.

No.3 seed Villanova feels a connection to the program’s…

A bumpy road, that’s exactly what UConn went through.

Connecticut has managed to navigate its way through a maze of off-court problems to reach the 2009 NCAA Final Four, getting this far for a third time, all in the last 11 years.

Coach Jim Calhoun missed the tournament opener as he was hospitalized to treat dehydration, but his Connecticut Huskies were dominant on the defensive end in a couple of blowout wins.

The day before the regional semifinals, a published report alleged UConn broke NCAA recruiting rules, but the Huskies refused to be distracted, beating Purdue and Missouri to advance. The defense has dominated all tournament as no opponent has shot better than 41 percent against the Huskies, who have 25 blocked shots in the four games.

The Huskies have a perfect 4–0 record in the Final Four, with national championships in 1999 and 2004, coincidentally after coming out of the West Region, just like in the concluding 2009 March Madness bracket tournament.

The Michigan State Spartans have got to be worried.

Hasheem Thabeet has the ability to control a game from the defensive end of the floor. The…

Yes, they’re still here.

The Big East may have two teams in the 2009 NCAA Final Four, but it’s Michigan State who will be hosting the party.

The Michigan State Spartans rode by its trademark, defense and rebounding, and threw in some balanced scoring to get to play in a Final Four just 90 miles from campus.

The Spartans capped the four-game run by beating overall no.1 seed Louisville, which was looking to join fellow Big East teams Connecticut and Villanova in the national semifinals.

Eight Spartans scored in double figures over the four games, but it was the steady play inside and sudden offense from Goran Suton allowed the Spartans to reach the Final Four for the fifth time since 1999. They will play the Connecticut Huskies next.

The regional semifinal win over defending national champion Kansas will become the signature win in what is turning out to be Michigan State’s Cinderella run, as the Spartans overcame a 13-point first-half deficit and went 16-of-17 from the free throw line to rally for the win.

Tom Izzo has taken Michigan State to the Final Four four times, winning it…

Well, they’re still here and two of them have already punched their ticket to the Elite Eight.

We are already deep into the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament and the big four are still standing. That’s not overly surprising as the number ones usually land in the Sweet 16, but it’s this weekend that trouble starts for the big guns.

Seeded No.1 in the Midwest, the Louisville Cardinals defeated Morehead St. (+21.5) 74-54, Siena 79-72 and are listed as the odds-on to make it to the 2009 NCAA Final Four from its region at –170.

The Louisville Cardinals are going up against the Arizona Wildcats next and Louisville finds itself listed as a 9.5-point fave. The two teams have met only once in the last few years, December of 2006 to be exact, and Louisville dropped a 72-65 decision to the Wildcats failing to cover as 3.5-point home underdogs as well.

Digging around online for numbers, it looks like Louisville head coach Rick Pitino is undefeated in Sweet 16 play, amassing a record of 8-0 (dating back to his days at Providence). Louisville is 12-8 ATS in their last 20 games in March. The last nine times Louisville has taken the floor as a favorite in March Madness, they have rewarded their backers…