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Posted March 20 at 8:00 PM EST

NCAA Tournament - Midwest Regional - Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville, FL

4:30 PM EST. Allow us to preface this by saying that we have been close followers of this tournament for over three decades and have been writing about it on this site since day one. We pay a lot of attention to what the media, publications and other sites are discussing because it has influence. This tournament brings out every hardcore and casual bettor in North America and one would be hard pressed to find a single sports fan that didn’t have some monetary interest in this massive and exciting event. We mention that because what we’re hearing and reading a lot about this year, more than any other year, is the focus that surrounds “upsets”. Perhaps, because for the first time last year in this event’s history, a #16 seed beat a #1 seed and Loyola Chicago also made a deep run. The talk used to be on which #1 team was going to go the deepest or something else along those lines but there seems to be an over emphasis on upsets this year. Which teams are going to get upset is what we’re hearing about most. That provides us with opportunity to catch a slew of favorites at a reduced priced and the Terps are among them.

There has never been more information available than there is at the present and we can also take advantage of that because the information is not truly accurate. That brings us to the rankings and you may read that Belmont has an elite offense. In fact, the Bruins ranked 3rd in the country in effective field goal percentage and 2nd in the country in assists per field goal made. That’s really nice but what those rankings do not tell you is that Belmont played the 216th ranked Strength of Schedule (SOS) in the country while Maryland’s SOS ranked 22nd. The point is that the rankings are very skewed when it comes to rankings. Speaking of rankings, Belmont’s defense ranked 127th after playing that aforementioned easy slate. Belmont’s toughest opponent this year was whom? Purdue? Against the Boilermakers, Belmont was down 40-24 at the half and Purdue cruised to an 11-point win after calling off the dogs with about six minutes to play. Belmont’s next toughest opponent was whom? UCLA? Belmont won that game by two points. The Bruins played a schedule that was loaded with teams whose mascots most could not name, like Tenn Tech, UT Martin and SIU Edwardsville for instance. Belmont lost just five games on the season but had the Terps played that schedule, they may have gone undefeated, Belmont lost at Green Bay, at home and away to Jacksonville State, at Purdue, and on a neutral court against Murray State.

In case you were wondering, Maryland also played Purdue and cruised to a 70-56 victory. In an earlier match in Purdue, Maryland lost by two points. This is a Big-10 team that played a grueling schedule and that were losing to teams like Virginia, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin and not Green Bay and Jacksonville State. The Terps also beat a slew of tournament teams and near misses like Indiana for example. The Terps are the fifth-youngest team in the country but they have considerable talent. Sophomore forward Bruno Fernando has made great strides since he arrived in College Park last year. He is shooting 69 percent from the floor, which ranks ninth nationally, and he is getting better at passing out of double-teams. He and 6-10 freshman Jalen Smith are as formidable a front-court tandem as you will find but all anyone wants to discuss is how good Belmont’s offense is and how upset minded they are. To that we say, “Fooey”! Give us the Terps at this massive discount.

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