Cinderella Stories in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8

NCAA TOURNAMENT BETTING – Cinderella Stories in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8

NCAA Tournament betting only has fifteen games remaining, as the final sixteen teams standing begin battling it out for college basketball’s ultimate prize. Today, BetUS Sportsbook looks at the nature of the underdog and the trends that high seeds have in the tournament. That only means you, Arizona bettors!

This tournament is lacking in the quantity of double-digit seeds in the Sweet 16 of tournaments past. Last season, the #12 Villanova Wildcats progressed into the third round of the tournament much like this year’s version of the Arizona Wildcats. Nova went from a huge underdog as a 12-seed against a 5-seed to a narrow favorite over a #13 when the Siena Saints knocked off the #4 Vanderbilt Commodores in the first round. When HC Jay Wright’s club finally ran into the big boys though, the story was different. The #12 seed was trounced by two touchdowns against top-seeded Kansas.

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#12 wasn’t a great number for Western Kentucky either. Though the Hilltoppers almost made it to the Sweet 16 for the second straight year out of the coveted 12-slot, they weren’t so lucky when they ran into a top seed either in the third round. WKU was bounced by #1 UCLA by ten points.

The only double digit seed with any success last year was #10 Davidson, which stole the show with the heroics of Stephen Curry. The Wildcats reached the Elite 8 and came within one shot of knocking off Kansas and moving on to the Final Four.

Though 2007 was also a slow year for double-digit seeds (none advanced to the Sweet 16), 2006 had a mixture of successes and failures. The #13 Bradley Braves out of the Missouri Valley Conference beat both #4 Kansas and #5 Pittsburgh without much difficulty, but when push came to shove against the #1 Memphis Tigers, the dog had met its match. Of course, ’06 was most famous for George Mason, which shocked the world as an 11-seed and made the Final Four. Its run ended against the #3 Florida Gators with a 73-58 defeat.

The #12 hole came back to rear its ugly head in the ’05 tournament with Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It blew through #5 Alabama and #4 Boston College without any difficulty, but was blasted by Illinois in the Sweet 16.

In case you’re keeping count, that’s a lot of betting trends going against Arizona this weekend. In fact, a #12 seed has only made it to the Elite 8 once, and that was in 2002 when the Missouri Tigers pulled off the feat. Since 2005, #12 seeds are 0-4 SU and ATS in the Sweet 16. Double digits seeds are 4-6 ATS in their L/10 games in the Sweet 16 or later, but the six ATS losses all have something very important in common: It was the final game that the team played. In fact, history will tell you that betting on the #1 Louisville Cardinals on the moneyline and playing them against the spread should be the same thing. Double-digit seeds are 1-5 ATS in the game which they were knocked out of the tournament. The only exception was when Davidson covered Kansas in its final game in the ’08 tourney.

Whether you plan on backing the Wildcats or not on Friday, BetUS has all of the tournament action covered for when one of these remaining sixteen teams cuts down the nets in Detroit. Login to your account right now and continue taking part in all the crazy “March Madness” betting!