{"id":335212,"date":"2025-03-20T15:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T19:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=335212"},"modified":"2025-03-20T15:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T19:47:12","slug":"march-madness-parlay-predictions-first-round-march-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/march-madness-parlay-predictions-first-round-march-21\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness parlay predictions March 21: Fade offence in Michigan State vs. Bryant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Among the four late-night March Madness matchups on Friday, I&#8217;ve got picks from three of them in this +260 parlay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pregame narrative<\/strong>: The UConn Huskies aren&#8217;t as heralded as in recent years, but I don&#8217;t expect a one-and-done showing from the two-time defending champs. I&#8217;ve got UConn to win, plus an alt total involving the Michigan State Spartans and an alt spread for the Liberty Flames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out my March Madness parlay predictions for NCAA basketball action on March 21.<\/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: UConn ML | Bryant\/Michigan State u155.5 points | Liberty +9.5 (+260)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>UConn moneyline (-239):<\/strong> After back-to-back national championships, is No. 8 UConn really going to bow out in the first round?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t buy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dan Hurley&#8217;s squad couldn&#8217;t crack St. John&#8217;s, but it otherwise handled its business in a strong Big East conference. During the non-conference slate, the Huskies picked up wins over three tournament teams (Gonzaga, Baylor and Texas).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UConn is 4-2 against Quad 1-A opponents, per BartTorvik.com. The Oklahoma Sooners are just 4-10 against Quad 1-A foes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oklahoma played in the toughest conference in the country, the SEC, but it didn&#8217;t exactly set the world on fire. A &#8220;quality loss&#8221; is a term SEC football fans love to throw around, but I won&#8217;t apply it to basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">College basketball parlay picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bryant\/Michigan State under 155.5 points (-163):<\/strong> Unders are hot for the No. 15 Bryant Bulldogs, and I expect that trend to continue against No. 2 Michigan State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Unders are 8-3 in Bryant&#8217;s past 11 games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Unders are 22-11 in Michigan State games this season (tied for the ninth-highest rate in NCAA Division I).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Both the Bulldogs and Spartans rank in the top 50 in effective field goal rate on defence &#8230; and they both rank <em>outside<\/em> the top 150 in eFG% on offence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This under has cashed in nine of MSU&#8217;s past 10 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bryant plays at the seventh-fastest pace in D-I, and a high-event game is definitely the biggest risk for this pick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But quantity doesn&#8217;t guarantee quality, and I expect Michigan State&#8217;s defence \u2014 No. 5 in adjusted efficiency, per KenPom.com \u2014 to put the clamps on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong><strong>Liberty +9.5<\/strong><\/strong> (-175):<\/strong> There are only two D-I teams that rank in the top 10 in eFG% on offence and defence. One of them is Duke, and the other one is Liberty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m less fixated on No. 12 Liberty&#8217;s defensive success, given that most of its games came against good-not-great Conference USA opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I do respect how effectively Liberty can fill the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>2nd in eFG%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>5th in 3PT%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>14th in 2PT%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t have a lot of bad things to say about the No. 5 Oregon Ducks, but I struggle to boast about them, either. Oregon is 105th in eFG% on offence and 91st in eFG% on defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lacking any elite traits, I don&#8217;t expect Oregon to run away with this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KenPom projects a four-point win for Oregon, while Bart Torvik projects the Ducks to win by two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>March Madness parlay predictions made at 3:45 p.m. ET 03\/20\/2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Among the four late-night March Madness matchups on Friday, I&#8217;ve got picks from three of them in this +260 parlay. The pregame narrative: The UConn Huskies aren&#8217;t as heralded as in recent years, but I don&#8217;t expect a one-and-done showing from the two-time defending champs. I&#8217;ve got UConn to win, plus an alt total involving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":335118,"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-335212","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: March 21 | NorthStar Bets<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our first-round March Madness parlay predictions for March 21, 2025. 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