Ohio State vs. Iowa State March Madness betting analysis & free tips

Betting Line: Iowa State -5.5
Over/Under: 140.5 at Bovada

Iowa State (23-11) steamrolled to the Big 12 Tournament win and in the first round of the Big Dance face an Ohio State (19-14) team that has to feel lucky to be in the dance and ended the season on a sour note.

In this first round Midwestern Region matchup 6th seed Iowa State faces 11th seed Ohio State where the winner will face the winner of the Houston vs. Georgia State game.

Ohio State got off to a great start this season, but the bubble team only went 8-12 in Big 10 play. Still, they got into the Big Dance and they played a tough conference schedule. Still the Buckeyes don’t come into this first round game with a lot of steam losing four of their last five games. While OSU has a solid defense, they are not averaging over 70 ppg. In this game, they face #24 Iowa State and on the season the Buckeyes were 1-8 facing top 25 teams.

Iowa State comes into this game with a lot of confidence after winning three in a row to capture the Big 12 Tournament. On top of that they beat the ranked teams of Kansas State and Kansas to win the tourney. The Cyclones are balanced and they turned it up on defense in the conference tournament only giving up an average of 63.7 ppg.

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This season Ohio State is 14-19 ATS and they have an Over/Under record of 17-15 and Iowa State is at 18-14-2 ATS with an Over/Under record of 17-16.

These teams last met in the 2013 season at a neutral site where Ohio State beat Iowa State 78-75 and that game was in the NCAA Tournament.

In their last game Ohio State lost to 6th ranked Michigan State 77-70 in the Big 12 quarterfinals. They had a good shooting game (46.2%) and shot the three-pointer well, but they allowed Michigan State to shoot 52% from the floor and they also committed 15 turnovers. Keyshawn Woods and Andre Wesson were the only players for OSUY in double figures combining for 30 points and both were 5/8 from the field.

Kaleb Wesson (14.4 ppg) led the Buckeyes in scoring on the season and after totaling 35 points in two games he only had seven points on 3/7 shooting in the loss to Michigan State. C.J. Jackson (12.2 ppg) is the only other player for the squad averaging aver 9 ppg and like Wesson he was solid in two games with 39 points and in the loss to MSU only had eight points.

Iowa State took out 17th ranked Kansas in their last game 78-66. They outscored the Jayhawks by 10 points in the first half and held them to 39.4% shooting while they shot a solid 48.1%. Four players for the Cyclones scored in double figures led by Lindell Wigginton, who came off the bench to go for 17 points. Marial Shayok (18.6 ppg) is the big gun for ISU and he had 15 points in the win over Kansas. Wigginton ranks 2nd on the team averaging 13.5 ppg and while he only had nine points in the game before the Kansas one he has averaged 15.2 ppg in his last five games.

Ohio State Buckeyes betting trends

• 1-4 ATS in their last five non-conference games
• 9-23 ATS in their last 32 neutral site games
• Over record of 6-1 in their last seven games

Take advantage of these betting trends with the best online bookies

Iowa State Cyclones betting trends

• 5-1 ATS in their last six neutral site games
• 6-2-1 ATS in their last nine non-conference games
• Over record of 5-1 in their last six games

Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Iowa State Cyclones betting prediction

Iowa State is hot and Ohio State is not and the Buckeyes only have one win all season facing a ranked team.

This game is not hard to call, as the Cyclones will rip through the Buckeyes and easily win this first round game and cover the spread.

Iowa State will play well on D again and facing a suspect OSU offense look for a low total in this game.

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