March Madness predictions: Talented offence should give Purdue a chance

Outright predictions and best bets for March Madness 2022.

Where to watch

BT Sport ESPN from 10.30pm Tuesday

Best bets

Purdue Boilermakers to win the NCAA Tournament
1pt 18-1 Hills

Providence Friars to make the Final Four
1pt 30-1 Paddy Power, Betfair

Preview

This week, one of the craziest events in sports officially gets under way.

No, not the Cheltenham Festival, but March Madness – the college basketball tournament that sees 68 teams battle it out in single-elimination games until one is left standing.

The excitement begins on Tuesday night at 11.40pm with the First Four, which are essentially four preliminary games to cut the number of teams down to a round 64. From there, whichever team can win six straight games will be declared the winner.

The first round officially starts at 5.15pm on Thursday with Michigan taking on Colorado State, although games will be tipping off constantly from there with 16 matchups taking place that day.

BT Sport will be the destination channel for people who want to witness the madness unfold, where you will often see them jump from game to game depending on which ones feature close scores.

This year, the favourites to win the NCAA Tournament are the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

Gonzaga went last season undefeated until they fell at the final hurdle, courtesy of an 86-70 defeat to Baylor.

Now, the Bulldogs are out to go one better but in their way stands some stiff competition from the likes of Arizona, Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Purdue and old foes Baylor.

There is no doubt that Gonzaga has the class to go all the way, especially with star forward Drew Timme leading the lineup, but this team has seemingly regressed from what they were last year and after their misstep in 2021 shouldn’t be trusted at short odds.

Instead, the team that looks worthy of an investment are the Purdue Boilermakers.

Beyond having a terrific nickname, the Boilermakers were a strong unit throughout the college basketball season and finished with a 27-7 record.

However, they were desperately unlucky to even lose that many games, having been downed by wild buzzer-beaters on more than one occasion.

Purdue earned eyecatching victories during the regular season against the likes of Iowa, Penn State and Villanova, and boast one of the best offences in the country.

They are unlikely to be afraid of anyone and have been handed a favourable path through the bracket, with things getting started against Yale on Friday.

What makes March Madness a particularly phenomenal spectacle is the vast number of upsets that seem to pop up.

Teams that were viewed as simply making up the numbers can suddenly go on a run, and of this season’s outsiders it is the Providence Friars who look capable of reaching the Final Four – the name of the semi-final stage.

Providence actually finished the season with a 25-6 record and enters the NCAA Tournament as a four-seed, but have been dismissed by many as being a lucky team purely for the number of close games they won.

However, that suggests to me that when push comes to shove, the Friars stay cool under pressure and are capable of pulling it off when it matters.

Among their wins are victories over the likes of Creighton and Texas Tech – both contenders in their own right. At 30-1, Providence is worth a small investment to make a run. Their tournament gets under way on Thursday against South Dakota State.

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