March madness betting favorites the Baylor Bears will visit the Texas Tech Raiders tonight at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock. Fans betting on March madness will be very interested in the outcome of this game, for which here are the lines at SBG online sportsbook:
Baylor -2½ (-110) 127½ (-110) -145
Texas Tech +2½ (-110) 127½ (-110) +125
The Bears have won two straight after losing two in a row. Baylor defeated TCU 70-52 on Saturday. Johnathan Motley shot 12-of-15 for 25 points, while Manu Lecomte had 17 points, and King McClure 13 – all of which came before halftime. McClure had consecutive 3-pointers in the first half. McClure made his second start in a row in place of the suspended Al Freeman, who is out for a violation of team policy. McClure has scored 23 points and shot 9-of-12 in those two starts. In stark contrast to the last time these two teams met when the lead changed 16 times, the Bears were never behind. Baylor has its best-ever record through 25 games overall and best through 12 conference games. Head coach Scott Drew said the Bears were bent on erasing what transpired in their last home game, when Baylor was down by 17 points in the first half last against Kansas. Baylor has won 17 of its last 22 games against Texas Tech and is 17-10 versus the Raiders under Drew. In March madness betting news, Baylor was the No. 3 overall seed and No. 1 in South in Saturday’s CBS Early Bracket Reveal.
Texas Tech at least doesn’t have to worry about fans betting on March madness. The Raiders lost a second straight game, 79-80 to the Kansas Jayhawks. Keenan Evans had 25 points, Niem Stevenson had a career-best 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Zach Smith had 21 points and 10 rebounds. TTU took advantage of a four-minute in the second half during which Kansas only made one field goal to get ahead 77-75 with 2:17 to go. However, the Jayhawks regained the lead never to relinquish it again. That was the first in a three-game stretch against the Top three teams in the Big 12 standings for TTU. Texas Tech leads the all-time series against Baylor 77-56 but the Bears have won 17 of the 22 games since 2005-06 – including a 65-61 win in Waco back on January 25th. TTU has won 14 of their 16 games when scoring 70 points or more with the exceptions of Oklahoma on Jan. 14 and against Kansas on Saturday. The Raiders have converted 48.2% of their field goal attempts, ranking them second in the conference and 30th in the country. Evans leads the team with 14.9 points per game and is on a 13-game streak in double figures. He has scored 20-plus points in straight games for the first time in his career, including a Big 12 career-high 25 points versus Kansas. Maybe not quite enough to make TTU March madness betting favorites, but not too shabby either.