The UCLA Bruins have advanced to and been eliminated in the Sweet Sixteen three times in the last four seasons. To return to that point again, the Bruins will need an extra win this year as they face the St. Bonaventure Bonnies in a First Four matchup Tuesday night.
March Madness odds 2018: UCLA, Radford are First Four betting favorites on Tuesday
The Bruins are betting chalk at the sportsbooks against the St. Bonaventure Bonnies on Tuesday night as the 2018 NCAA tournament tips off in Dayton.
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UCLA is a 3.5-point betting favorite in this matchup on the March Madness odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The Bruins overcame some early-season adversity to finish the regular season with a 21-11 straight up and 15-16-1 against the spread record, earning them this spot in the NCAA tournament. In their last 26 games as a favorite in March Madness play, the Bruins are 23-3 SU.
St. Bonaventure had a 13-game winning streak snapped in an 82-70 loss in the Atlantic 10 tournament. Despite the loss, the Bonnies earned an at-large bid on the heels of a 24-7 SU and 15-15 ATS campaign. This will be just the third game that the Bonnies have played in the NCAA tournament since 2000, with the team going 0-2 SU and 2-0 ATS in its previous two tournament games. The Florida Gators await the winner of this game as a No. 6 seed.
No 16 seed has ever upset a No. 1 seed, but the winner of Tuesday’s game between the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the Radford Highlanders will keep its dream of being the first to do so alive. The winner of this game will face the Villanova Wildcats in the Round of 64 on Thursday (printable March Madness bracket).
Radford ended the season on a 7-0 SU run that includes a 3-0 SU and 2-1 ATS run through the Big South tournament to win the conference championship. The Highlanders wrapped up their regular season with a 22-11 SU record and are a 4.5-point favorite over LIU Brooklyn.
The Blackbirds weren’t looking much like an NCAA tournament team when they started the season off with a 9-13 SU and 7-12-1 ATS record. But a 5-0 SU run to end the season that included a 71-61 win over Wagner as 9.5-point underdogs in the conference title game earned LIU Brooklyn an auto-bid as the Northeast Conference champion.
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