The NBA standings will take a backseat to most hoops fans when the NCAA Tournament is on for the second half of March stretching into the first Monday of April, but what do you do about the favorites to cut down the nets?

You can wager on the favorites when you’re betting online for the NCAA Tournament, and that wouldn’t be a bad pick; favorites are usually favored for a reason and that’s because they’re a good team; for example, Kentucky was one of the favorites for basically the entire season, and they ended up defeating Kansas, another team that was near the top of the list (even though many thought they were being overvalued).

However, you have to do your research and watch a few games before you decide to plunk down the money on a favorite and again, from this year’s Tournament, you only have to look at North Carolina. The Tar Heels were up there with Kentucky for most of the season, even after they lost by a point in Lexington when the two powerhouses met in December. You could just tell that the Tar Heels were a flawed team even though they had more talent in the country than any other team not named Kentucky; they have four guys that are going to the NBA and will probably be first-round picks. However, they rarely seemed to come together for big games and then they lost their influential point guard during the Tournament.

The moral of the story: if you’re going to wager on the favorites, you have to do your research before making your sport betting picks.

Your basketball blog is likely starting to heat up with the playoffs on the horizon, but hoops are probably still reeling from the NCAA Tournament, which was won by Kentucky. Some sports fans have complained that this year’s Tournament wasn’t as exciting as years past because of a lack of upsets by the “Cinderella” teams, but there were still a few top seeds knocked (for example, a No.2 beat a No.15 for the first time in over a decade, and it happens twice on the same night). That means next year’s event could get wild, and here are a couple tips for wagering on the smaller teams.

Check out the head-to-head history between not only the two teams, but the two coaches, before you head to your best online sportsbook. Coaches are moving around all the time in college basketball and the two in your particular matchup may have run across each other at other programs. That can give the coach from the smaller school some insight as to how his opponent will use his players.

Before you start, you should make sure you define what a “Cinderella” team really is, because even though the national powerhouses are still running the country, the smaller schools are also improving and are probably as good as any point in the history of the sport. A “Cinderella” team may not actually be a “Cinderella” team, but has tricked the sportsbooks into thinking they are and that can you pad your sports betting online account.

Even readers of a hockey blog will find themselves tuning into the final game of March Madness as the NCAA Tournament starts at 68 teams and finishes with two on Championship Monday. Here are a few things to consider when making your bets.

Tournament Play

If you bet on March Madness religiously, that means you’ve probably been watching the Tournament all the way through and you can see how a team players, figuring out their nuances, their best players and certain things they like to do in certain situations. How they’ve played all season doesn’t really matter when you get to this point, it’s all about how you have played in the Tournament to sports betting players (unless you run into an example from the third point, which you will read shortly).

Matchups

They say, in boxing and MMA, styles make fights and the same rings true in college basketball. Some teams are just a poor matchup for another. For example, you may have a team with poor interior defending facing a team with a dominant big man, or a squad that has trouble shooting three-pointers up against a team that plays a lot of zone defense.

Head-To-Head

Sometimes, you will even get lucky and get a national-title game that is a rematch from earlier in the regular season. That means you can go back and examine that game to see where the teams are going to make their adjustments, and make your own call from there. If that’s the case, you probably have an edge in selecting the winner in your online sportsbook.

From March Madness brackets to game-by-game betting, the NCAA Tournament is a wagering player’s paradise with all sorts of options, and this year’s edition figures to be incredibly wide open. Here are six teams you need to check out.

Kentucky – The Wildcats are the consensus favorite according to those who plan on wagering on a March Madness spread, but will they be bitten by their youth again?

Kansas – The Jayhawks have an inside-outside duo that compares to any team in the country, and they have an excellent coach that has already won a title.

North Carolina – The Tar Heels have been one of the biggest disappointments in the nation, but when it comes to talent, only Kentucky can compete with North Carolina, who are monsters in the post, but inconsistent on the perimeter.

Duke – The Blue Devils are here because they have the best coach of this generation, a freshman that can get hot and dominate any game, and the players all know their roles. However, a lack of size could hurt them the deeper you get into the Tournament.

Michigan State – The Spartans shocked everyone to win the Big Ten, and like Duke they have a fantastic coach who is worth two wins on his own.

Florida State – The Seminoles were 4-1 against Duke and North Carolina this season, and it’s their defense that take over games. If they can hit a few shots, the ‘Noles are a strong darkhorse in your best online sportsbook.