{"id":335009,"date":"2025-03-20T10:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T14:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=335009"},"modified":"2025-03-20T10:06:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T14:06:20","slug":"march-madness-prop-bets-march-20-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/march-madness-prop-bets-march-20-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Best March Madness first-round prop bets: Bet on Bennett Stirtz, Nick Townsend to shine in underdog roles on Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>March Madness is an opportunity for anonymous heroes to emerge, and I&#8217;m targeting four players to show up big in Thursday&#8217;s first round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-84329f2b-7888-4034-9979-03e8608897e5\"><strong>The pregame narrative<\/strong>: Bennett Stirtz has done it all for the Drake Bulldogs this year, and he&#8217;s got a nice price to continue leading the charge for them offensively. I also have prop milestone predictions on Silas Demary Jr. (Georgia), Nick Townsend (Yale) and Harlan Obioha (UNC Wilmington).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-8f1effd0-db18-40a8-916e-091372420d9e\">Check out the best March Madness prop bets for March 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"block-0a4ee124-09d4-4260-81c9-fd6fe232dbb3\">March Madness prop 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 id=\"block-479767b6-5872-497b-ac44-239c07c7e3d5\"><strong>Best bet: Stirtz 20+ points (+128)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"cacheembed:111440\">Embed: #111440<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I like No. 11 Drake to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/article\/march-madness-upset-picks-2025-first-round\">pull off an upset<\/a> over the No. 6 Missouri Tigers, and if that has any chance of happening, Stirtz will need to come up big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Stirtz leads NCAA Division I in minutes per game (39.3) and paced the Missouri Vally Conference in scoring (19.1 points\/game).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He takes nearly twice as many shots as anyone else on the Bulldogs (13.3 FGA; the next highest is 7.4 FGA).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Stirtz has efficient shooting splits (49.3\/38.6\/79.5), which justifies his high shot volume.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Stirtz is a junior, but this is his first season at the D-I level. He spent the past two seasons as a star for D-II Northwest Missouri, before following coach Ben McCollum to Drake this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Missouri native now faces the Missouri Tigers, who might try to turn this game into a track meet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mizzou plays at the 55th-fastest offensive pace in D-I, per KenPom.com, while Drake plays at the slowest pace in the country (364th). If the Tigers can liven up the pace, that should just result in more shots for Stirtz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-479767b6-5872-497b-ac44-239c07c7e3d5\"><strong>Key stat<\/strong>: In his past 13 games, Stirtz is averaging 21.3 PPG and has cashed this bet 10 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Best March Madness picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Demary 3+ threes (+135):<\/strong> For a guy who&#8217;s only canning 1.8 threes per game, this might seem like a bit of a reach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Demary&#8217;s 3-point shot volume is way up right now, and I think that could continue for No. 9 Georgia&#8217;s matchup against the No. 8 Gonzaga Bulldogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what Demary has accomplished from the 3-point line in his past 10 games:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>6+ attempts in 9 games<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2+ makes in 10<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>38.2 3PT% on 7.6 attempts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Demary cashed this prop in five of those 10 matchups, but he was a threat to do it every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gonzaga allows 24.4 attempted 3s per game, which ranks 79th in D-I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Obioha 6+ rebounds (-117)<\/strong>: UNC Wilmington was a successful rebounding-by-committee squad this year, ranking 24th in rebounds per game despite no players averaging 7.0 RPG or more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Obioha is, quite literally, at the centre of the Seahawks&#8217; success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The 7-foot centre averages 5.9 rebounds per game.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He has 6+ rebounds in 5 of his past 6 matchups.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>On the season, Obioha has 5+ rebounds in 21 of 34 games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Niagara transfer is especially active on the offensive glass with a 14.7% rebounding rate (24th in D-I, per KenPom.com).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the 14th-seeded Seahawks are expected to go down against the No. 3 Texas Tech Red Raiders, I don&#8217;t expect Obioha to get pushed around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He&#8217;ll be the tallest player on the court Thursday, and at 280 pounds, he is 55 pounds heavier than anyone on the Red Raiders&#8217; side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong>Townsend 25+ points\/rebounds\/assists<\/strong> (+110)<\/strong>: The No. 4 Texas A&amp;M Aggies are scrappy, but that scrappiness leads to plenty of fouls. With that in mind, I think Townsend should be a force for the No. 13 Yale Bulldogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Townsend is a 6-foot-7, 250-pound forward who shoots well from the free-throw line (76.3%). He&#8217;s also a stat-stuffer across the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>On the season, Townsend is averaging 15.4 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists (26.2 PRA).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He has 25+ PRA in 13 of 19 games since Dec. 20.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Texas A&amp;M is an elite rebounding team, but none of its rotation players are taller than 6-foot-9. And the squad ranks 317th in offensive effective field goal rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Look for Townsend to grab some boards and be a focal point for Yale&#8217;s offence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-84329f2b-7888-4034-9979-03e8608897e5\"><em>March Madness prop bets made at 9:20 a.m. ET on 03\/20\/2025.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March Madness is an opportunity for anonymous heroes to emerge, and I&#8217;m targeting four players to show up big in Thursday&#8217;s first round. The pregame narrative: Bennett Stirtz has done it all for the Drake Bulldogs this year, and he&#8217;s got a nice price to continue leading the charge for them offensively. I also have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":335037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-335009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","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 prop bets March 20: Picks &amp; predictions | NSB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our best March Madness prop bets for March 20, 2025. 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Previous stops include mlb.com, Sportsnet and The Athletic.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news","https:\/\/twitter.com\/JordanHorrobin"],"url":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/author\/jordan-horrobinnorthstargaming-ca\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335009"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335040,"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335009\/revisions\/335040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}