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Charlie Grant
Buffalo (13) vs. Kentucky (3) Odds: March Madness Prediction
The Buffalo Bulls are hoping to become just the sixth 13-seed to advance to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. To do so they’ll have to take down another Wildcat team full of future NBA players.
NCAA Tournament Odds and Betting Analysis
Kentucky got past Atlantic 10 tournament champion Davidson despite going 0-for-6 from 3-point land. The Wildcats are 8-1 straight up and against the spread over their last nine games, and 25-10 SU and 18-17 ATS on the season. The over is 8-1 in the Wildcats’ last nine games and 23-13 overall.
Buffalo has won seven games in a row and has covered the spread in six of seven of the same period. The Bulls are 27-8 SU and 17-12-3 ATS on the campaign. They were a decent over bet this year with games going above the betting line in 19 of their 31-lined games.
Buffalo is 19-6-1 ATS in its last 26 neutral site games while Kentucky is 5-1 ATS in its last six non-conference games.
Buffalo Bulls
It might have been framed as David versus Goliath but the Bulls did not play the role of David in their upset win over Arizona on Thursday night. The MAC champs declawed the Wildcats and outscored them by 19 points in the second half.
This is Buffalo’s third time in the Big Dance in the last four years and three of its top four scorers are upperclassmen with experience in the NCAA Tournament. The Bulls like to push the pace as they demonstrated against Arizona. They averaged the 21st most offensive possessions per game in the country during the regular season.
Kentucky Wildcats
He’s one of the few players on John Calipari’s team who can create scoring opportunities for his teammates.
The Wildcats use the 3-point shot about as little as any team in the country but they make up for it by getting to the free throw line. Nearly 23 percent of UK’s points scored during the regular season came at the charity stripe. The team hit 26 of its 32 attempts free throw attempts on Thursday.
