2010 NCAA Basketball Tournament Upset Picks for March Madness

The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament is one of the most popular times of the year for sports bettors; even those not custom to tackling the daily grind of investing in sports like to get in on all the action. With this year’s field wide open, a number of lesser known teams have shots at becoming the next George Mason and coming from out of nowhere to blow up the betting public’s brackets. Here’s a look at three teams that Touthouse.com believes is capable of stringing together a couple of upsets. 2010 March Madness 1st Round Upset Picks

1) Murray State Racers – When sifting through the brackets and taking a gander at teams from lesser known conferences, it’s imperative to see just how well that team fared against its conference foes. In the case of the Racers, they dominated going 20-1 SU and, and they avenged the lone loss in the OVC Tournament Championship Game by taking out Morehead State 62-51 as four-point favorites. This team covered easily against its only NCAA Tourney qualifier when it went into Berkeley and easily covered the 13.5-point spread falling 75-70 at Cal. This club is highly efficient offensively (#3 at 50.3%) and plays lock down defense evidenced by it allowing an average of 60.5 PPG (#21) and opponents to shoot just 38.6 percent (#11) this season. Unfortunately, the betting public is well aware of this clubs abilities as they currently stand as three-point underdogs after opening up as 4.5-point pups.

2) New Mexico State Aggies – The Aggies punched their ticket to the dance with a solid run in the WAC Tournament that saw them upend Utah State 69-63 as 10-point underdogs in the championship game. While this club lacks much of anything at the defensive end of the court, it can flat out score and shoot form a high percentage from the field. Five players average double-digits in scoring with guards Jahmar Young and Jonathan Gibson setting the pace with 20.5 and 17.5 PPG respectively. Michigan State has proven to be a much lesser from than from years past. Though it closed out the year with wins in 5 of its L/7 games, all those victories came against B10 teams that aren’t going to any tournaments this season. If their shots and the Aggies compete on the glass, the Spartans could be the victims of yet another 12/5 upset.

3) Utah State Aggies – Many players from last year’s team that suffered a heartbreaking 58-57 Round 1 loss at the hands of the Marquette Golden Eagles are back looking to advance the Aggies into the second round for the first time since the 2000-2001 season. Though they’ll be taking on a gritty Texas A&M club on Friday, Head Coach Stew Morrill’s kids have as good a shot as any of the other 12 seeds to ruin many a bracket this tournament. Saturday night’s loss to the Aggies in the QAC Championship game was the first defeat incurred by this club since January 4th. That’s right! USU won 17 games in a row before ultimately losing, and they went a $$$-making 13-4 ATS during that stretch. This club is highly efficient (#7 at 49.1%) and can flat out stroke it from beyond the arc (#3 at 41.9%). Oh yeah, they also play stellar defense evidenced by its 59.6 PPG allowed on the year (#11). A&M is prone to going into scoring droughts, and if they do so in this spot, the Aggies can turn this one into a laugher!

Looking for more NCAA tournament picks? Visit Touthouse.com throughout March Madness for expert college basketball betting predictions from over 30 professional sports handicappers