College Basketball Best Bets: Florida, Duke and Alabama Highlight Saturday Picks

We’re all about to get hit with a severe dose of March Madness fever. One of the symptoms is dissecting all the top teams in hopes of putting together a championship bracket.

But you know who we’re not hearing enough about? Defending champion Florida. Oh, there are whispers but it might be time to start shouting that last season’s champs might be taking it all again.

The No. 5 Gators are clicking heading into the regular-season final against Kentucky. Tobacco Road has the rematch between top-ranked Duke and host North Carolina. Meanwhile, Auburn is being discussed for a different reason heading into its battle at Alabama.

FLORIDA GATORS AT KENTUCKY WILDCATS

The Gators (24-6) lost to three national powers in nonconference play – Arizona, Duke and UConn – and also fell to TCU but that uneven 5-4 start is a distant memory. Florida has won its last 10 straight games by an average of 23.2 points with Kentucky (92-83) the only team to lose by single digits during the stretch.

Gators interior dynamo Rueben Chinyelu has 18 double-doubles and leads the nation in rebounding (11.8) and has collected 16 or more boards on nine occasions. Kentucky lost the rebounding battle by nine in the earlier matchup and also needs leading scorer Otega Oweh (17.9) to do better than 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting.

Nobody outside of the Bluegrass State is considering the Wildcats as the top dog on their bracket. Kentucky (19-11) has dropped four of its last six games and another setback is looming in the rematch.

Florida -5.5 points to cover spread, -118 (DraftKings)

NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS AT DUKE BLUE DEVILS

The Blue Devils (28-2) are worthy of the No. 1 label as they enter battle against one of the two teams they lost to – 71-68 at North Carolina on Feb. 7. Duke has since won seven straight games by an average of 24.3 points with only then=No. 1 Michigan (68-63) losing by single digits during that span.

Cameron Boozer has been a do-it-all freshman and is averaging 22.6 points, 10.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game while shooting 40.4% from 3-point range. He had 24 points and 11 boards in the loss to the Tar Heels. Of course, No. 17 North Carolina had prized freshman Caleb Wilson then but he’s since been lost for the season due to thumb surgery.

The Tar Heels (24-6) have gone 5-1 without Wilson but the last three victories are by an average of 4.7 points. North Carolina is 17.5-point underdogs and won’t be able to slow Boozer (11 games of 25 or more points) without Wilson around.

Cameron Boozer to score 25-plus points, +125 (DraftKings)

AUBURN TIGERS AT ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE

The Tigers (16-14) sits right on a soft tournament bubble and this contest feels like a must-win as who wants to see a potential 16-loss Auburn team in the NCAA Tournament? OK, only Bruce Pearl wants that, but the former coach is just a tad biased (OK, very biased) and his trashing of unbeaten Miami (Ohio) to justify his son’s team being part of the field was embarrassing (Yeah, he’s not embarrassed).

The way to get into the field is to start by winning the rematch against No. 16 Alabama (22-8) and then making a run in the Southeastern Conference tournament. The first matchup was high-octane with the Crimson Tide picking up a 96-92 road win as star Labaron Philon Jr. scored 25 points.

Philon has 17 20-point efforts this season and will make Alabama a dangerous opponent during the Big Dance. But first, he’ll try to lead the Crimson Tide to their sixth win in their past eight meetings with the Tigers.

Total over 176.5 points, -110 (DraftKings)