Game Time Nation (206)

Las Vegas casinos like top seed Kentucky better than all the other teams in the NCAA tournament, but think Ohio State is better than any of the other No. 1s….Oddsmaker Mike Colbert of Cantor Gaming said Monday that Kentucky is a 5-2 favorite to win the championship, despite losing the Southeastern Conference championship to Vanderbilt on Sunday.

”They started a little slow but I think they’ve been the best team for the bulk of the year,” said Colbert, Cantor’s risk management director. ”I think the loss will end up being good for them — I think they were getting slightly arrogant.”

No. 2 seed Ohio State was 6-1 as the second favorite in odds Cantor shared with the majority of Nevada’s 186 sports books, Colbert said.

”That probably surprises some people because they got beat yesterday by Michigan State in their conference championship,” he said.

Michigan State, the top seed in the West region, was 9-1 to win the title. The other top seeds — North Carolina and Syracuse — were 7-1 and 10-1, respectively.

In any sport, Las Vegas usually makes teams more expensive if they’re popular among bettors. But the Buckeyes’ odds are based simply on the idea that they’re a better team than the others, ….Colbert said bettors were wagering heavily on Vanderbilt (40-1), Cincinnati (75-1) and Memphis (60-1) in early action….Sin City is predicting five upsets in the first round: No. 9 Connecticut over No. 8 Iowa State, No. 10 West Virginia over No. 7 Gonzaga, No. 9 Alabama over No. 8 Creighton, No. 11 North Carolina State over No. 6 San Diego State and No. 10 Purdue over No. 7 St. Mary’s…..more than 100 million people worldwide are expected to wager a total of $3 billion on bracket-style games. More than $12 billion total is expected to be wagered on the tournament itself…wow!!

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Federal authorities are investigating suspended Auburn point guard Varez Ward for alleged point shaving in at least two games this season…The report cited anonymous sources and said the FBI began an investigation in late February centering on losses to Alabama on Feb. 7 and Arkansas on Jan. 25.

Ward and guard Chris Denson were both suspended before a Feb. 25 game against Arkansas, but Denson returned for the next game. Denson was questioned and cleared of involvement in the alleged point shaving, the report said.

”Auburn officials were made aware of a rumor regarding an allegation two weeks ago and immediately reported it to the FBI, the NCAA and the SEC,” Auburn said in a statement Thursday. ”Because of the nature of the allegation, Auburn is not in a position to make any further comment on the situation.”

The report said a player reported concerns to an assistant coach in late February…Ward, a Texas transfer, has averaged 9.0 points a game and leads the Tigers in assists.

Ward scored three points and had six turnovers in the 68-50 loss to Alabama, playing 17 minutes. Vegas Insider said Alabama was favored by five points.

Ward lasted only 19 seconds after coming off the bench in the 56-53 defeat before crumpling to the floor. Barbee later said he took a knee to the right leg he had injured early in his sophomore season with the Longhorns, when he ruptured his quadriceps tendon on a dunk during pregame warmups. Auburn still covered the 9 1/2-point spread.

In between those games, Ward had his hottest streak of the season. He scored 53 points in a three-game stretch, including 24 against Mississippi State.

Ward has not commented publicly since his suspension. His last Twitter post was on Feb. 24 when he tweeted, ”Can’t win for losing smh” (shaking my head). It was the last in a series of posts that day, the first saying that his knee was ”hurting bad.”

Ward sat out last season under transfer rules and has two years of eligibility remaining.

North Carolina (26-4/13-2) has won six straight games since the Blue Devils snapped the Tar Heels’ school-record 31-game home winning streak on Feb. 8. That game that ended with freshman Austin Rivers burying a 3-pointer at the buzzer, capping Duke’s comeback from 10 down in the final 2 1/2 minutes…..Duke (26-4/13-2) and UNC entered the week tied atop the league standings. The Blue Devils won at Wake Forest on Tuesday night to take care of their part, then the Tar Heels did the same 24 hours later. The teams meet Saturday night at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Heading into the season nobody would have imagined the Hoosiers (22-7/9-7) would enjoy at least a .500 season in the Big Ten. A winning season overall, sure. But finishing at least .500 in a very tough conference? Well, that still seemed a year away.

Instead, Indiana has met all its expectations for this season and more thanks to a combination of better maturity, better hunger and, more than anything else, slowly learning to win on the road. The Hoosiers have struggled from inconsistency away from home, but they have used their experience this season to become more competitive in nearly every time out.

IU’s only bad road outings during the Big Ten season game at Ohio State and Iowa in a pair of ugly losses. In both of those games the Hoosiers came out flat and didn’t play like they believed they could win. The Ohio State loss was almost understandable considering how powerful the Buckeyes were at home early in the season, but the Iowa loss was more troubling. Indiana put forth little effort and played like a team that had peaked too soon.

The bottom line is the Hoosiers have a legitimate shot at winning 24 games this season and have earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament. By any measure, that’s a successful season for the Hoosiers right now, and the team is hungry for more.