{"id":335251,"date":"2025-03-21T10:48:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T14:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=335251"},"modified":"2025-03-21T10:48:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T14:48:25","slug":"march-madness-prop-bets-march-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/march-madness-prop-bets-march-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday&#8217;s best March Madness first-round prop bets: Back Oregon&#8217;s Nate Bittle, Florida&#8217;s Walter Clayton Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m backing three players to do damage during Friday&#8217;s March Madness slate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-84329f2b-7888-4034-9979-03e8608897e5\"><strong>The pregame narrative<\/strong>: Florida has taken a top seed largely thanks to the play of Walter Clayton Jr. and I expect the first-team All-American guard to shine. I also have wagers on Oregon&#8217;s Nate Bittle and New Mexico&#8217;s Nelly Junior Joseph. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-8f1effd0-db18-40a8-916e-091372420d9e\">Check out the best March Madness prop bets for March 21.<\/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:\/\/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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-479767b6-5872-497b-ac44-239c07c7e3d5\"><strong>Best bet: Bittle over 8.5 rebounds (+115)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I can&#8217;t really wrap my head around this line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bittle is playing his best basketball at the right time and has a massive size advantage over everyone else in this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 7-foot senior is the only player listed above 6-foot-9 on either team outside of Kai Yu, a freshman on the No. 12 Liberty Flames who has played a total of 45 minutes this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Liberty&#8217;s biggest weakness is on the glass, and I expect Bittle to feast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Flames rank 298th in D-1 in rebounding rate, according to TeamRankings. <br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They also rank 347th in average height, per KenPom, with no starters or rotational players standing above 6-foot-8.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bittle is coming off an 11-rebound performance in the Big Ten tournament against a Michigan State Spartans team which ranks third in rebounding rate \u2014 now imagine what he can do against the undersized Flames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-479767b6-5872-497b-ac44-239c07c7e3d5\"><strong>Key stat<\/strong>: Bittle has 7+ rebounds in seven of his last eight games, clearing this mark four times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Best March Madness picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Clayton over 17.5 points (-120):<\/strong> In my opinion, the biggest risk to this wager is a blowout where Clayton doesn&#8217;t play big minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But we haven&#8217;t seen Todd Golden rest his star much all season and I don&#8217;t see why it would happen now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Clayton is averaging 32.4 minutes per game and has only played sub-30 minutes in six of 32 games this season. He&#8217;s made good use of that playing time, averaging a team-high 17.5 PPG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The guard has scored 20 points in four of his last five games against <em>much <\/em>tougher opponents than the 16-seeded Norfolk State Spartans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Norfolk State ranks 213th in adjusted defensive efficiency and should get walked over on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In college, I like to see players who shoot 3s efficiently and make their free throws. Clayton does both well, shooting 37.7% from deep and 85.7% at the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><strong>Joseph 15+ points<\/strong> (+100)<\/strong>: The 10-seeded New Mexico Lobos and 7-seeded Marquette Golden Eagles seem destined for a dog fight, and Joseph should be at the centre of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fifth-year senior is averaging 14.0 PPG this season and almost exclusively does his damage in the paint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At 6-foot-10, 245 pounds, Joseph is built like an old-school bruiser with a modern scoring touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marquette ranks 199th in 2-point defence (51.3%) and 241st in rebounding rate (48.8%). As long as Joseph stays out of foul trouble, I like him to score and clean up on second chances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-84329f2b-7888-4034-9979-03e8608897e5\"><em>March Madness prop bets made at 9:10 a.m. ET on 03\/21\/2025.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m backing three players to do damage during Friday&#8217;s March Madness slate. The pregame narrative: Florida has taken a top seed largely thanks to the play of Walter Clayton Jr. and I expect the first-team All-American guard to shine. I also have wagers on Oregon&#8217;s Nate Bittle and New Mexico&#8217;s Nelly Junior Joseph. Check out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":335241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[452,75],"tags":[349],"class_list":["post-335251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-com","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 prop bets March 21: Picks &amp; predictions | NSB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our best March Madness prop bets for March 21, 2025. 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