{"id":334680,"date":"2025-03-18T16:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T20:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=334680"},"modified":"2025-03-18T16:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T20:28:12","slug":"march-madness-parlay-predictions-first-round-march-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/march-madness-parlay-predictions-first-round-march-20\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness first-round parlay predictions: Fade offence in Arkansas vs. Kansas, back UC San Diego on alt spread"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On Thursday, the 2025 March Madness college basketball tournament will be underway in full force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pregame narrative<\/strong>: This +309 parlay has plays on three evening matchups from the 16-game slate. I&#8217;m taking the under on an alternative total when the Arkansas Razorbacks face the Kansas Jayhawks, and I also have recommendations on the No. 11 Drake Bulldogs and No. 12 UC San Diego Tritons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out my March Madness parlay predictions for NCAA basketball action on March 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">March Madness parlay predictions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/sports\/basketball\/competitions\/10530\">Full March Madness Markets<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/article\/un-bustable-bracket-challenge\">PLAY NOW: Un-Bustable Bracket Challenge<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Parlay: Arkansas\/Kansas u148.5 pts | Drake +9.5 | UC San Diego +5.5 (+285)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arkansas\/Kansas under 148.5 points (-163):<\/strong> This game has by far the most coaching clout of any first-round tilt, and I expect it to be a defence-first chess match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bill Self and John Calipari&#8217;s squads are both stronger on the defensive side, per KenPom.com:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Kansas:<\/strong> 11th in defensive efficiency, 48th in offensive efficiency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Arkansas:<\/strong> 20th in defensive efficiency, 73rd in offensive efficiency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Jayhawks and Razorbacks also both hit unders more often than overs. Combined, unders are 39-27 (59.1%) in their games this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Kansas is favoured, unders are 18-9. And the Jayhawks have gone under this total in 19 of 33 games on the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">College basketball parlay picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Drake +9.5 (-182):<\/strong> The Bulldogs are one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/article\/march-madness-upset-picks-2025-ncaa-first-round\">my favourite first-round upset picks<\/a>. So let&#8217;s give them a bunch of points, shall we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bulldogs&#8217; roster is a who&#8217;s who of non-NCAA Division I transfers, including three players who came over from D-II Northwest Missouri State with first-year coach Ben McCollum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And they sure seem to be gelling, as Drake has posted an 18-1 record since Jan. 8 \u2014 and the lone blemish was a two-point loss more than a month ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Missouri Tigers stumbled to a 2-5 record down the stretch. Coming out of the SEC, they&#8217;re a battle-tested bunch&#8230; but a blowout win is far from a sure thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mizzou has only covered this number in 16 of 33 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong><strong>UC San Diego +5.5<\/strong><\/strong> (-182):<\/strong> Like Drake, I&#8217;ve tabbed UC San Diego as an upset team to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the Tritons (+2.5) are hardly underdogs against the 5-seed Michigan Wolverines, so I&#8217;d prefer to give them a bit more cushion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After winning the Big Ten tournament, Michigan got a raw deal from the selection committee. The Wolverines had to travel west from Indianapolis to Denver for a matchup on the first day of the Round of 64.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team waiting for them is a matchup nightmare, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>UC San Diego is riding the longest win streak in NCAA Division I (15 games). <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Tritons own the best turnover margin in the country (+7.3\/game). They forced the 8th-most turnovers and allowed the 2nd-fewest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Michigan has a major turnover problem. The Wolverines committed the 23rd-most and had a -2.7 average turnover margin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>To top it off, USCD has the best ATS record in D-I (25-7-0).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>March Madness parlay predictions made at 1:45 p.m. ET 03\/18\/2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Thursday, the 2025 March Madness college basketball tournament will be underway in full force. The pregame narrative: This +309 parlay has plays on three evening matchups from the 16-game slate. I&#8217;m taking the under on an alternative total when the Arkansas Razorbacks face the Kansas Jayhawks, and I also have recommendations on the No. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":334629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[452,75],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-334680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-com","category-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-betting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>March Madness parlay predictions first round: March 20 | NSB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our first-round March Madness parlay predictions for March 20, 2025. 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