Stay Away From Vols, Hawkeyes, Buckeyes ATS In March Madness

Tennessee has gone 20-13 against the spread this season.
Iowa has -110 odds to cover a 10.5-point spread against Richmond.
Ohio State has a Pick Em’ against Loyola Chicago.

NEW ORLEANS – With March Madness beginning on Thursday, there are plenty of different trends to keep in mind when betting on different games. More specifically, there are trends on coaches and how they have done in March Madness overall.

Fran McCaffery, Iowa Hawkeyes

Starting with the Iowa Hawkeyes and their head coach, Fran McCaffery, they are riding high right now off of a Big 10 Championship and going 22-13 against the spread this season. While at first glance this team scream championship contention, McCaffrey has struggled in the NCAA Tournament during his time with the Hawkeyes.

McCaffrey has coached nine games for the Hawkeyes in March Madness and has gone 3-6 against the spread in that span. Also, as the favorite, they have gone 1-4 against the spread.

Looking ahead to their Round of 64 matchup with the Richmond Spiders, legal betting sites have them going in as 10.5-point favorites. The Spiders have been one of the hottest teams against the spread right now having covered in each of their last three games as an underdog.

Rick Barnes, Tennessee Volunteers

Although the Volunteers do have championship aspirations, Rick Barnes is the one coach to steer clear of when betting on the Vols side of the spread in March Madness. In 26 March Madness appearances, he has gone 15-24-2 ATS and is 7-11-1 ATS specifically in the first round. Dating back to the 2015-16 season when Barnes first joined Tennessee, he has gone 1-5 ATS.

Yes, they are the #3 in the South Region, but they could not have asked for a worse #14 team to face than the Longwood Lancers. Longwood is one of the best teams against the spread this season at 19-9 with an average cover margin of 3.6 points. They have also covered in four straight games heading into the tournament. With the CBB odds giving 17 points to play with, they have a wide margin to cover the spread and continue tormenting Barnes.

Chris Holtmann, Ohio State Buckeyes

Sure, Chris Holtmann has led the Buckeyes to four March Madness appearances over the last five seasons, however, they have yet to make it past the Round of 32. Holtmann was first hired by Ohio State back in the 2017-2018 season and he has led them to an atrocious 1-4 record against the spread.

The Buckeyes are also coming off of last years March Madness upset where they fell to #15 Oral Roberts as a #2 seed in the first round as 16-point favorites.

Advertising Disclosure

In order to provide you with the best independent sports betting news and content LegalSportsBetting.com may receive a commission from partners when you make a purchase through a link on our site.

Sam Profeta

Samuel has been writing professionally for 4 years. He comes from a sports writing background where he enjoys writing mostly about basketball and football both professional and collegiate. He is a recent graduate of Florida State University where he majored in Editing, Writing and Media with a minor in Communications. During his free time, you can find him watching or playing sports as well as playing videogames and listening to music.