{"id":334906,"date":"2025-03-19T15:44:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T19:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=334906"},"modified":"2025-03-19T16:04:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T20:04:58","slug":"march-madness-best-bets-first-round-march-20-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/march-madness-best-bets-first-round-march-20-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness first-round best bets: March 20 picks on Gonzaga, St. John&#8217;s and Fletcher Loyer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One ATS pick, one player prop and one over\/under bet make up Thursday&#8217;s March Madness best bets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The pregame narrative<\/strong>: In a battle of Bulldogs, back No. 8 Gonzaga to cover as favourites against No. 9 Georgia. I&#8217;m also backing Purdue&#8217;s Fletcher Loyer to clear his 3-point total and St. John&#8217;s to go under its game total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Check out my March Madness best bets for NCAA college basketball action on March 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">March Madness best bets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.northstarbets.ca%2Fsportsbook%2Fsports-hub%2Fbasketball%2Fncaab&amp;data=05%7C02%7CJordan.Horrobin%40northstargaming.ca%7Cbeebaea6edef4ee6bff508dd6559142b%7Ca474078ecda74c118881901a044d2bef%7C0%7C0%7C638778155464096400%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=YpNgDkdfZ%2BeP5BoA6jmv5cSlxJl53smxrlbwYUmGXW0%3D&amp;reserved=0\">Full March Madness Markets<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.northstarbets.ca%2Fsportsbook%2Fnews%2Fmarch&amp;data=05%7C02%7CJordan.Horrobin%40northstargaming.ca%7Cbeebaea6edef4ee6bff508dd6559142b%7Ca474078ecda74c118881901a044d2bef%7C0%7C0%7C638778155464120503%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=ev7AbXrklRhS5b%2BeAH3I4J12SpqfJ3N3WktmiUo9iMA%3D&amp;reserved=0\">PLAY NOW: Un-Bustable Bracket Challenge<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Best bet: Gonzaga -6.5 (-109)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"cacheembed:111430\">Embed: #111430<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Will the real Bulldogs please stand up? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The main argument for backing Georgia would be that it closed out conference play strong and carried a four-game winning streak into the SEC tournament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But that doesn&#8217;t paper over an inconsistent season, or the fact that it had lost eight of 11 prior to going on that win streak, or its 4-11 record in Quad 1 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In my opinion, Mike White&#8217;s squad is severely outmatched by perennial powerhouse Gonzaga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mark Few has guided his Bulldogs to six straight Sweet 16s and has a stellar 43-24 record in the D-1 tournament \u2014 and this year&#8217;s squad is capable of going just as deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Gonzaga owns a 25-8 record (5-5 in Quad 1 games). <br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is 9-1 in its last 10 games, covering a 6.5-point spread in every victory.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Bulldogs rank top 30 in KenPom&#8217;s average adjusted offensive efficiency, average adjusted defensive efficiency and effective FG%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One big area where Gonzaga can separate from Georgia is turnover margin. Few&#8217;s bunch turns the ball over at the fifth-lowest rate (13.2%) while White&#8217;s team ranks 293rd (18.9%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I expect an experienced Gonzaga lineup to make Georgia pay for those errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ket stat:<\/strong> Gonzaga is 5-2 ATS in its last seven games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NCAA college basketball picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Loyer 2+ threes (-134):<\/strong> Loyer is coming off a horrible 0-for-6 shooting performance against the Michigan Wolverines in the Big Ten tournament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In that game, Loyer suffered a minor elbow injury on his non-shooting arm but Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter says he&#8217;s &#8220;good to go&#8221; on Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The guard was a big part of Purdue&#8217;s run to the national championship last year, shooting 47.4% from deep across six tournament games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year, Loyer is averaging 2.1 threes per game on 46.4% shooting. He had cleared this mark in nine of 10 games prior to playing Michigan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Look for Loyer to do damage against the 13-seeded High Point Panthers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><strong><strong>Nebraska Omaha\/St. John&#8217;s under 148 points<\/strong><\/strong> (-113):<\/strong> Rick Pitino is back in the tournament and his 2-seeded Red Storm are threats to win it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">St. John&#8217;s ranks first in adjusted defensive efficiency and 19th in opponent EFG%. It&#8217;ll be tough for anyone to score on this bunch, let alone little Nebraska Omaha<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A rout in this game is the likely outcome for the Red Storm, who open this tournament as an 18.5-point favourite on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But everything about this match screams &#8220;rock fight&#8221; to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">St. John&#8217;s ranks 338th in 3-point percentage and 295th in FT% \u2014 two ways to quickly accumulate points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unders are 19-15 in Red Storm games this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>March Madness best bets made at 1:45 p.m. ET 03\/19\/2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One ATS pick, one player prop and one over\/under bet make up Thursday&#8217;s March Madness best bets. The pregame narrative: In a battle of Bulldogs, back No. 8 Gonzaga to cover as favourites against No. 9 Georgia. I&#8217;m also backing Purdue&#8217;s Fletcher Loyer to clear his 3-point total and St. John&#8217;s to go under its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":334963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[349],"class_list":["post-334906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>March Madness best bets: March 20 first-round picks | NSB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our March Madness best bets for March 20, 2025. 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