Best bets in college basketball

Joe Ellison

College basketball has hit crunch time, and March Madness is right around the corner. It's time to look at which teams have been the most consistent moneymakers currently and throughout the season.

Notes: I am using the Pointwise Information Service, so your numbers may vary. These numbers do not include the bettable Big Sky, Metro Atlantic, Ohio Valley and Southern conferences. These numbers reflect the point spread records before Wednesday night's games.

Best teams against the spread: Mississippi State (15-4) and North Carolina State (13-4). Pacific, UTEP, Western Michigan and Wichita State were all 14-5. The worst versus the spread: Ohio State, Arizona State, Central Michigan, Wyoming and Florida International.

Strongest home teams: Nevada, North Carolina State, BYU, UC-Santa Barbara and Western Michigan have failed to cover only once at home. The weakest home squads: USC, Central Michigan, Florida International, Fordham, Princeton and Arizona State.

Most successful home favorites: Ohio (5-0) and Evansville (4-0) have been perfect. St. Mary's, Nevada, BYU, UC-Santa Barbara and Western Michigan all are 7-1. The least successful: USC, South Alabama, Arizona State, Minnesota and Rhode Island.

Mightiest home underdogs: Florida State, New Mexico and Santa Clara. Most feeble home dogs: Ohio State, Bradley, St. John's, Cornell, Evansville and Florida International.

Strongest road warriors: Mississippi State (9-1), Wichita State (7-1), Marquette (6-1), Hawaii (5-1) and Stanford (5-1). Weakest on the road: Wyoming (0-8), Iowa State (0-7), and Akron (1-8). Connecticut, Ohio State and Tennessee are all 1-6.

Most efficient visiting favorites: Wichita State, Boise State, Mississippi State, Stanford and Western Michigan. Least efficient as road favorite: Akron, North Carolina, Louisville, Connecticut and Texas Tech.

Sturdiest visiting underdogs: Princeton, Hawaii, Southern Illinois, Providence, Louisiana State and Mississippi State have been perfect as road dogs. Shakiest road underdogs: Tennessee, Wyoming, Iowa State and Vanderbilt have failed in all of their opportunities.

Hottest clubs lately: Mississippi State has covered 12 consecutive games. Next best were North Carolina State with seven in a row, and Idaho and TCU with six. Oklahoma State and Wichita State have five consecutive covers.

Coldest schools of late: Auburn has not covered eight games in succession. Next worst are Cincinnati, South Alabama and St. Bonaventure with six. Wisconsin-Milwaukee is on a five-game non-covering streak.

- Certain conferences as a whole have given out fairly consistent results against the spread. In conference play only:

Home teams do well in the Atlantic Coast (27-15), Big Ten (37-22), Southeastern (35-26) and Mountain West (22-15) conferences. Home teams struggle in the Horizon (25-33), Conference USA (33-40) and the Ivy League (12-19).

Go with the favorites in the West Coast (30-12), Missouri Valley (42-27), Mid-American (49-35), Atlantic 10 (37-26), Atlantic Coast (26-16) and Mountain West (23-14). Lean toward going against the favorite in the Horizon (26-32), PAC -10 (29-34) and Big East (35-39) conferences.

Home underdogs do best in the Big Ten, Southeastern, Big East and Colonial leagues. Home dogs have been terrible in the Missouri Valley (5-15), West Coast (3-11), Atlantic 10 (6-13) and Mid-American (10-14) conferences.

Will these trends continue? Who knows? But I wouldn't want to bet against them.

- I received two more letters in Friday's and Sunday's Nevada Appeal Mailbox, bringing the count to a record three in one week. Naturally those responses countered my thoughts, but I still thank William Lepore Sr. and Sam Davis for their replies.

As for Mr. Davis' "suggestion" that I go "try to find work in" another country, I must admit the thought has recently crossed my mind. I was thumbing through Sports Illustrated's 40th anniversary swimsuit issue, and I must say I saw some of the most beautiful swimsuits that have ever been made. I will gladly act on Mr. Davis' suggestion when he helps me launch my new international career in body painting.

Joe Ellison is the Nevada Appeal Betting Columnist. Contact him at editor@nevadaappeal.com.