If you’re sports betting on college basketball, it’s essential that you diligently prepare for the season. Effective prep work starts right after March Madness ends. Use this offseason time to evaluate teams and players, take a look at the futures as soon as they are posted, and consider any fallout from the season that just ended.
Check the Sports Pages
If you want to stay up to date on all things college basketball, you will need to spend at least 10-20 minutes a day perusing internet articles, watching sports analysis on television, and reading player and team bios. This will keep your head in the game and as the new season rolls around, you’ll spend much less time catching up.
Season Previews
Season previews come out about six to eight weeks before the season starts. Once they appear online and hit the newsstands in September, you want to submerge yourself in them. Read them thoroughly. They will give you information on last season, offer projections, and give you an idea of who may be the standout players.
The thing to remember about these previews is that the purpose is to give you perspective on the upcoming season. That’s it. Once the season starts and games are being played, the previews are out the window. You cannot make picks based on the previews.
Important Losses
As you consider each team, look at what players they have lost. Pay particular attention to graduating seniors, guys lost to the NBA, and specialists or role players who might be gone. If a new coach has joined the staff, this might also affect recruiting and player retention.
Recruiting Efforts
Usually, there’s a good reason why certain colleges always put winning basketball teams on the court. It has to do with excellent recruiting and the fact that top high school players want to be on the team. As you are preparing for the season, take a look at any star recruits who have entered the program.
Assessing the Schedule
Carefully examine each team’s schedule and assess its difficulty. A mediocre team may have an easy schedule, making it a better bet than you might normally think. A premium club may have an extremely difficult schedule and may be in a highly competitive conference, and this will cut back on some of their wins. There are conferences where just one or two teams totally dominate all the other teams in the conference. Those clubs could be solid bets throughout most of the year.
Second Season Prep
Once you get to the postseason, you’ll be doing a lot of new prep. Some of the preparation will be dedicated to conference tournament play, and a considerable amount will be spent on March Madness and the NIT. The college basketball postseason is really its own separate season.
Once the Season Starts
All of the prep that you have engaged in is important, as it gets you focused on the game and each team, gives you the background information that you need to begin making smart bets, and offers you insights into which clubs you may prefer to focus on during the NCAA basketball season. Remember that once the season begins, preseason analysis starts to go out the window. Instead, regular season reality sets in and some teams underperform, some sustain injuries, and others play beyond expectations. At that point, college basketball betting is a day-to-day process.