March Madness: Exact Region Result Odds

With four teams remaining in each region of the March Madness bracket, placing futures bets becomes a little easier than trying to pick a Sportsbook from the field of 64 teams. But maybe you think that some of the value has evaporated through the first weekend of action. If that’s the case and you are feeling confident, you can bet exact region results and find plenty of lines that offer value.

Let’s look at the exact result odds for each region and break them down.

East Region Odds

The East Region has basically been a crapshoot through the first weekend. Villanova and Duke are gone while Wisconsin and South Carolina fill their places. The two matchups in the Sweet 16 – Wisconsin vs Florida and South Carolina vs Baylor – could very realistically go either way.

Florida and Wisconsin is almost certainly a contest to 60. Both are defensive-focused teams with a committee approach offensively. Obviously, the battle down low between Ethan Happ and Devin Robinson will be vital but expect the team with the better backcourt play to ultimately win this one. Whichever guard plays the most efficient basketball between Bronson Koenig and KeVaughn Allen will likely lift his team to victory.

Much like Florida vs Wisconsin, Baylor vs South Carolina will be a battle of boards. Baylor is dominant on the glass and is the best offensive team left in the tournament in the paint. South Carolina is phenomenal defensively down low, as the Gamecocks have held opponents to just 19 ppg in the paint during the tourney. Whichever team wins the rebound game likely wins this one.

Midwest Region Odds

Entering the Sweet 16, most feel the Midwest Region is Kansas’ to win. It’s a fair statement considering the Jayhawks have beaten their previous two opponents in the tourney by 38 and 20 points. Which goes to show why Kansas winning the region against either Oregon or Michigan has the best two odds in this region.

The Jayhawks must first get through Purdue. Kansas, basically playing a home game less than an hour away from Allen Fieldhouse, relies heavily on its backcourt while Purdue’s game goes through the bigs. The Jayhawks excel at using speed, as they start four guards who account for over 70 percent of the team’s offense. The Boilermakers’ big three of Caleb Swanigan, Vince Edwards and Isaac Haas all stand at least 6’8” and all average over 12 points and five rebounds per game. Basically, whoever can dictate the pace of the game should win this one.

Michigan’s depth has been the engine that has driven their Cinderella run. The Wolverines’ top four players all average at least 11 points and all notch more than 4.0 rebounds per game. Plus, every player on the Michigan team is a good defender as well. However, Oregon has been lethal shooting and Tyler Dorsey may be the best shooter in the tourney. Dorsey has scored at least 20 points in the past five games while draining 53.5 percent from deep. The Ducks will want to run up the score in this one while the Wolverines are going to look to guard that 3-point line with their lives.

South Region Odds

Much like the Midwest, the South Region has a heavy favorite in UNC. The Tar Heels have the best odds to win the region and have the same odds to beat either UCLA or Kentucky to book a trip to the Final Four.

However, if the same UNC team that we saw against Arkansas shows up against Butler, the upset could easily happen. The Tar Heels struggled mightily shooting against the Hogs and spent the entire night turning the ball over. They need to rectify these issues against a Butler team that plays efficiently with the ball and starts off hot. Justin Jackson or Joel Berry II will need to find their shooting stroke early because Butler can shut down an opponent’s best player.

Then there is the potential game of the tournament between UCLA and Kentucky. UCLA is a juggernaut on offense with the freshman duo of Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf averaging a combined 33.5 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists per game during the tourney. Kentucky has been playing better defense lately, which is a good thing because offense has been lacking. If Malik Monk shoots like he can, this could be a triple-digit nail-biter, but if he is cold, the Bruins could run away with this.

West Region Odds

Odds suggest what we were all expecting entering March Madness, that the West Region finals will be between Gonzaga and Arizona. One of those two teams topping the other to earn a spot in the Final Four has the best two odds in this bracket.

The Zags have an extremely difficult task in the Sweet 16 against West Virginia. Gonzaga has not looked great during the tourney at times and playing against an aggressive Press Virginia defense may keep the Bulldogs on their heels. However, big man Przemek Karnowski hasn’t been playing full minutes through the first two games to keep him fresh – and hide some deficiencies. Gonzaga is a talented, deep team but turned the ball over a lot against Northwestern and that issue might be exacerbated against WVU.

In theory, No. 2 Arizona has an easy victory against No. 11 Xavier. However, the Musketeers are not your typical 11 seed. The Muskies topped FSU in the second round and should look to that strategy to try to contain the Wildcats offense – though Xavier won’t have the same coaching edge in this one. Once Arizona’s offense gets going, the Cats are near unguardable but they have started slow so far this tournament. Lauri Markkanen holds a distinct size and skill advantage over many of Xavier’s bigs, so expect the Finnish freshman to be fed early and often.