March Madness Betting Trends: Sweet 16 Hits Hardwood on Thursday

One of the most surprising trends for the remaining NCAA tournament teams that have advanced to the Sweet 16 involves the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who have failed to cover the spread in eight straight March Madness games.

The third-seeded Fighting Irish have managed to survive in the Midwest Region so far due to clutch play both offensively and defensively late in games, allowing them to win twice by a combined seven points. They have also been favored in each of their first two matchups, something that likely will not happen for them again throughout the rest of the tournament.

Notre Dame is a small underdog against the seventh-seeded Wichita State Shockers in the Sweet 16, and another betting trend actually favors the Fighting Irish in this particular spot. In the team’s last seven games as an underdog, Notre Dame is 6-2 against the spread with five straight-up wins, beating the Duke Blue Devils twice, the North Carolina Tar Heels twice and the Louisville Cardinals once.

Duke, North Carolina and Louisville are also all still alive in the Sweet 16, making the trend even stronger.

Staying in the Midwest, those bettors who have been concerned about the top-seeded Kentucky Wildcats because they have failed to cover both of their first two games should not be worried about them in the Sweet 16. The undefeated Wildcats are 10-2 SU and 9-3 ATS in this round since 1996 and have also gone 8-2-1 versus the line in their past 11 games as double-digit favorites.

It is worth noting that the two non-covers as double-digit chalk for Kentucky came in the first two games of this year’s Big Dance.

In the West Region, the second-seeded Arizona Wildcats seem to be the biggest threat to Kentucky as the favorite to win the national championship from a betting perspective, but their Sweet 16 matchup with the sixth-seeded Xavier Musketeers could be a bigger challenge than one might think.

Not only has Xavier head coach Chris Mack previously served as an assistant at the school under current Arizona head coach Sean Miller, but the Musketeers are 5-0 ATS in their last five appearances in this round, including two with him at the helm.

Xavier is also a remarkable 20-3-1 ATS in its past 24 NCAA tournament games overall and riding a 12-1 run vs. the line as an underdog in the Big Dance. In addition, while No. 2 seeds are 14-2 SU in the previous 16 matchups with the No. 6, the lower seed has gone 5-2 ATS in the last seven meetings.

All odds courtesy of Odds Shark.