An Inside
Look at March Madness 2021
Selection
Sunday is only days away and soon it will be time for one of the truly great
sporting events to begin. March Madness will be extra special this year after
the event was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The NCAA
has taken all sorts of precautions to make sure the 2021 tournament takes
place. Here’s our insider
sports report for March Madness 2021.
MARCH
MADNESS IS AROUND THE CORNER
March
Madness 2021 Logistics
Early in
the 2020-21 college basketball season, the NCAA decided to hold the entire
year-end tournament in Indianapolis. The city was already hosting the Final
Four and had the ability to host all games at a number of different venues in
and close to Indianapolis.
All 67
games will be played at six different arenas in and near Indianapolis over the
course of three weeks beginning with the First Four games which this year will
all be played on one day - Thursday, March 18.
The first
round will begin on Friday, March 19 with second round games to be held on
Sunday and Monday, March 21 and 22. This is a change from the year's past when
first and second round games were played on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and
Sunday.
The Final
Four is still scheduled for Saturday, April 3, with a championship game on
Monday, April 5.
Take a look
at 2021
NBA Insider Info.
COVID
Protocols
The NCAA is
partnering with a local health care provider to administer testing to all
athletes, coaches, and staff over the duration of the tournament. Teams and
their personnel will by staying in accommodations provided by Marriott Hotels,
which has a sponsorship deal with the NCAA.
Several of
the venues can be reached via a tunnel system in Indianapolis. Secure
transportation will take teams to and from games and practices. The NCAA is
doing everything it can to ensure that all 67 games are played on time without
any issues related to the pandemic.
Is your bookie
business ready for March Madness 2021?
Tourney
Favorites
The overall
No. 1 seed will be Gonzaga which finished the regular season unbeaten. The
Bulldogs are the +250 favorite to win this year’s tournament. The other No. 1
seeds will be Baylor, Michigan, and Illinois.
Baylor
(+330) lost just once during the regular season, an upset loss at No. 13
Kansas. Michigan lost three games during the regular season, but two of them
came in the final week of play - to Illinois and in-state rival Michigan State.
The
Wolverines are +420 favorites to win the Big Dance while Illinois is listed at
+1000.
We’re ready
for the NCAA Tournament. We crushed our Texas
Tech at Baylor free pick for this past Sunday. You gotta go
see how we did.
March
Madness Cinderella Stories
Loyola-Chicago,
which made the Final Four in 2018 as a No. 11 seed, won the Missouri Valley
Conference tournament and will be in March Madness again. With conference
player of the year Cameron Krutwig, the Ramblers could make some noise this
year again.
Michigan
State had a big final two weeks of the regular season. The Spartans got
much-needed wins over Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio State in their final six
games of the season.
At 15-11,
head coach Tom Izzo will likely take his Spartans dancing again. His team is a
longshot at +7500, but so was his 2002-03 team that wound up in the Elite
Eight.