Buffalo Bulls Aim To Be This Year’s 12-Vs.-5 Seed NCAA Tournament Upset
The 12th-seeded Buffalo Bulls will seek their ninth consecutive straight-up victory when they tip off against the No. 5 West Virginia Mountaineers in the Round of 64 as 4.5-point underdogs in March Madness betting action this week.
Friday afternoon’s Bulls-Mountaineers game at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, will be one of four closely watched No. 5 versus No. 12 seed matchups — contests that have produced six combined upsets over the past two NCAA Tournaments.
Buffalo’s current hot streak follows a three-game SU losing streak that threatened to derail its season. The Bulls are a solid 6-2 against the spread in their last eight games but are just 1-6 SU and 3-4 ATS as underdogs this season.
The Mountaineers stumbled down the stretch, going 1-3 SU in their last four games. WVU is 5-2 ATS in its last seven games but a middling 9-8 ATS this season as a favorite of more than four points.
In the West Region, the No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks face the red-hot No. 12 Wofford Terriers as 7.5-point favorites at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The Razorbacks were the big surprise in the SEC this season, going 9-2 SU down the stretch to claim second place in the conference standings. However, Arkansas has been a betting disappointment of late, going 3-6 ATS in its last nine, including five ATS losses when favored by 7.5 or more points.
The Terriers are an impressive 15-1 SU and 11-5 ATS in their last 16 games, according to the OddsShark College Basketball Database, and will be hungry for their first March Madness victory in the school’s fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last six years.
The No. 5 Utah Utes will have their hands full when they take on the No. 12 Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks in South Region action as 6.5-point betting favorites.
The Utes have alternated between SU wins and losses in their last eight contests while going 3-6 ATS in their last nine. Utah has broken the 70-point mark just twice in its last eight games, a potential cause for concern against a Stephen F. Austin squad that has averaged over 88 points per game during its current nine-game SU win streak.
In the East Region, the No. 5 Northern Iowa Panthers take on the No. 12 Wyoming Cowboys as six-point betting favorites.
The MVC champion Panthers are an impressive 19-1 SU in their last 20, 13-4-3 ATS, while the Cowboys arrive at the Big Dance riding a three-game SU win streak but are just 11-18 ATS this season, recording back-to-back ATS wins on just two occasions.
Thumbnail photo via Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports Images
