March Madness betting on New Mexico should be interesting as the Lobos are the third seed in the East Region. New Mexico went 29-4 this season under head coach Steve Alford. New Mexico opens up play on Thursday against Montana and they are solid favorites to win that game in March Madness lines.
March Madness betting doesn’t have the Lobos as one of the favorites to win the NCAA Tournament but New Mexico is team that can do some damage. They may not get tested against a Montana team that really was fortunate to win the Big Sky tournament. Anthony Johnson had 42 points in that game but they can’t afford to get into a scoring contest with New Mexico.
The Lobos are led by Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, Darington Hobson. He had 13 double-doubles on the season. He can simply take over a game. “Just his maturity as a basketball player has been amazing,” coach Steve Alford said. The Lobos also have Dairese Gary who can shoot from the outside, plus forward Roman Martinez averages 13.8 points per game. The only concern for New Mexico is that they don’t have a dominant center so they would like to avoid teams that are strong on the inside. “Hopefully, in the NCAA tournament, we’ll get a favorable matchup to where we’re not playing against a huge team, because we’re deficient there,” Alford said. “We’re very vulnerable there with the lack of size that we have on this year’s team.”
New Mexico was solid on the road this season and that is good news when it comes to March Madness betting. Teams that win on the road do well vs. the March Madness lines. The Lobos are expected to beat Montana in March Madness betting. They would then face the winner of the game between Marquette and Washington. The Lobos would be favored over either of those two teams with Marquette likely to give them a tougher game. The problem for New Mexico would be in the Sweet Sixteen where they would probably have to face West Virginia. That game could be a problem for them in March Madness betting since West Virginia has a strong inside presence. This is a talented New Mexico team though that has the potential to beat anyone in the East, even #1 seed Kentucky.