Sports Betting

George Mason may be worth betting on

Hands up if you had the George Mason Patriots in the Final Four of your NCAA Tournament bracket. No one? Didn't think so. The Patriots have had one of the all-time great Cinderella runs this year, having won four straight games at the Big Dance over some serious competition.

Now hands up if you had thought to place bets on George Mason before any of their tournament victories. The Patriots were a 5-point underdog in their first-round game against Michigan State, and a 6.5-point underdog in Round 2 against North Carolina. They won those games outright 75-65 and 65-60.

In the Sweet 16, the Patriots were actually favored against Wichita State, and managed to easily cover the posted, 2.5-point spread. That made them 3-0 ATS in the tournament, a record which they would subsequently run to 4-0 when they upset top-seeded Connecticut (favored by 8 points) 86-84 in the Regional Finals.

So any bettors who hopped on the George Mason bandwagon at the start of the tournament are wealthier today because of that support. In fact, the Patriots have been paying off for their supporters all year, as they compiled a 16-8-1 ATS record on the season, including an 8-4-1 ATS mark away from their home arena.

All that bodes well for the Patriots' chances to pay off once again in their Final Four matchup with the Florida Gators on Saturday at Indianapolis' RCA Dome. The Gators opened as 4.5-point favorites in that contest, with most books pushing that number up to 5.5 points or even 6 points by Tuesday.

If those odds continue to increase, the Patriots will look like an even better play. Underdogs often lose momentum after a layoff, but George Mason came back strongly on the second weekend of the tournament. The Gators have done well to cover in their four games to date; the Patriots should make No. 5 a real test.

Those bettors looking for some totals action haven't seen much of a trend from George Mason through four games, as they have two OVER plays and two UNDER results to this point. However, the Patriots went basket-for-basket with the high-powered Huskies on Sunday, making that game an OVER result even before the two teams went into the overtime frame.

The Gators have also been putting up some high-scoring games of their own in the tourney, pouring in 75 versus Villanova on the weekend. If George Mason can keep up with Florida's scorers like they did with those of UConn, the game's opening posted total of 131.5 (which is starting to go up) should be surpassed.

Game time is 6:07pm ET on Saturday. The winner advances to Monday's final.

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