Article Courtesy of Ted Sevransky, An award-winning professional college basketball handicapper featured on Touthouse.com. If you are betting this year’s NCAA basketball tournament, be sure to visit Touthouse.com and buy Ted Sevransky’s expert March Madness Betting Picks

When March Madness rolls around, no one is immune to the itch to get in on the action, whether it’s laying down a bet or simply competing in an office pool. Teddy shares his Top 10 NCAA tournament betting strategies in this article.

1) Fade the public teams
While teams in the Top 25 often pique the interest of Joe Public, the smart bettor looks for good spots to bet against favorites. Fading overvalued clubs can make a big difference to your bottom line. You should especially look to go against teams that went all out to win their conference tournament, like Syracuse and Mississippi State this year.

2) Ride the hot, fade the cold
Pay attention to streaks, particularly early in the tournament. When betting on a hot team to continue winning you can profit many times before the streak ends. Betting against streaks, you can only win once.

3) Winning your office pool requires luck
When filling out brackets, the single most important thing is to pick the eventual champion correctly, since the final game is weighted the most. Many office pool players work too much on picking the early round upsets and not enough on their Final Four teams. The vast majority of Final Four teams are top seeded teams; #1, #2 or #3 seeds.

4) Defense, defense, defense
While a flashy offense looks great, defense wins championships. Shooting percentage allowed is a key stat, a far better indicator of defensive intensity than points per game. Look for underdogs that play championship level defense.

5) Free throws cover pointspreads
Free throws given up and attempted is another key statistic. When one team gets to the free throw line far more often than their opponents, it means that they play fundamentally sound defense and are aggressive on offense. Remember, an eight point favorite that is winning by two can cover the spread in the final thirty seconds of the game if they are capable of hitting their free throws.

6) Don’t forget rebounding
Rebounding differential is crucial to examine. The better rebounding teams tend to dominate the paint, getting easy looks while their opponents are relegated to shooting jumpers from the outside. The extra possessions that good rebounding teams are able to get can have a huge impact on their results.

7) Look at the guard play
Veteran leadership in the backcourt is one common denominator among championship caliber teams. Strong guard play results in fewer turnovers and extra assists – more easy buckets and less wasted possessions.

8.) Throw out the records that don’t matter
When teams play in the NCAA tournament, they are facing top notch competition away from home. Looking at their records and stats against weaklings, particularly at home, is utterly irrelevant from a handicapping perspective. Look at how teams performed against upper echelon foes away from home for a clearer indicator of their potential.

9) Be aware of home court advantages
While the NCAA tournament is purportedly played on neutral floors, the selection committee gives relatively friendly trips to a handful of teams. Ohio State, North Dakota State, Washington, Duke, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Villanova Oklahoma, Louisville and Utah State will all enjoy some sort of a home court advantage in the first round of the tourney this year.

10) Follow the lead of the pros
In the NCAA tournament, many amateurs enter the betting world for the first time all season. These square bettors tend to back favorites and overlook schools from smaller conferences. Professional bettors are far more knowledgeable about smaller conferences and that gives them an edge when analyzing on-court match-ups.

If you enjoyed this article then you may be interested in:

1. 2008 March Madness Betting Futures – Odds to Win the NCAA Tournament
2. NCAA College Basketball Top 25 Rankings: Updated February 24th 2009
3. 2008 March Madness Betting The NCAA Basketball Tournament
4. NCAA College Basketball Top 25 Rankings: Updated February 17th 2009
5. 2009 March Madness Betting Odds to Win the NCAA Tournament