NCAA Tournament 2011 Betting Lines and Picks: Duke vs. Michigan and More

As usual, the NCAA men's basketball tournament is living up to the hype.

Making it even more enjoyable for me and the crew at Odds Authority is the fact that we have covered 67 percent of our March Madness free picks so far. Let’s keep the profitable run going and handicap some of Sunday’s NCAA Tournament point spreads provided by online betting group Sportsbook.com.

Michigan–Duke preview and pick

Notching 14 points in 20 minutes, freshman point guard Kyrie Irving was impressive in his return to the Duke Blue Devils lineup in their first round 87-45 lambasting of Hampton.  In doing so, Duke both won and covered the point spread for the fourth straight game; each of the victories were by double-digits.

Winning their fifth game in a row will be a tough task as they take on the Michigan Wolverines. If you backed the Wolverines with any type of consistency this season, congrats. Heading into this afternoon’s game with Duke, Michigan covered over 72 percent of their games this season; including eight in a row and 13 out of their last 14 games.

Looking back at their schedule this season the Wolverines had four games against current No. 1 seeds. Even though they went 0-4 straight-up in those games, they covered each time. More importantly they kept each game within single-digits: a seven-point overtime loss to Kansas, a four-point loss to Ohio State, a nine-point loss to Ohio State and a seven-point loss to Ohio State.

Take Michigan plus 12.5 points.

Florida St–Notre Dame preview and pick

Led by Ben Hansbrough (43.7 percent) and Tim Abromaitis (43.4 percent) the Notre Dame Fighting Irish shoot 39.2 percent from three point land—better than any other Big East squad. The Irish averaged 75.8 points per game this season; also tops in the 16 team Big East. It will be difficult for them to get to that number Sunday night.

The Florida State Seminoles surrendered just 61.8 points per game to their opponents this season; second best in the ACC. As a matter of fact, only two of their 32 opponent this season were able to score more than Notre Dame’s average (75.8 points).

Don’t be surprised if Notre Dame struggles from outside the arc tonight. Combined, Seminoles’ opponents were only able to convert 30.4 percent of their three-pointers this season.

Notre Dame has had some talented teams over the last few years, but always seem to disappoint when the dance rolls around. Since taking over a decade ago, Coach Mike Brey has led Notre Dame to the NCAA Basketball Tournament seven times. However, they made the Sweet 16 just one time—way back in 2003. Not surprisingly, they are just 1-5 against the spread in their last six NCAA Tournament games.

Take the defensive-minded Seminoles plus 5.5 points.