March Madness Betting: Wake Forest vs Kentucky Odds

In one of the first round March madness betting upsets, the nine seed Wake Forest Demon Deacons defeated the Texas Longhorns and now find themselves playing the number one seed Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday night at 8:15pm EST in a game that can be seen on CBS from the New Orleans Arena. College basketball odds at online sportsbooks have Kentucky a 9.5-point favorite over Wake Forest with a betting total of 147. The Demon Deacons pulled off the upset with 1.3 seconds left when Ishmael Smith nailed a 17-foot jumper to seal the 81-80 win on Thursday.

Wake Forest covered the 5.5-point spread as underdogs in college basketball odds while the total went OVER the 148.5 at sportsbooks. Smith went 8-20 with 19-points and 7 assists while Al-Farouq Aminu added 20-points and 15 rebounds to lead Wake Forest in the win. "I knew I wasn't going to get all the way to the lane," Smith said after the game. "I knew I had to pull up, and thank God I made a big shot." Heading into tonight's March madness betting match-up, the Demon Deacons are 16-8 straight up in their last 24 games and 2-5 straight up in their last 7 games.

The Wildcats netted 54-points in the first half and never looked back, cruising to a 100-71 first round win over East Tennessee State. Kentucky cleared the point-spread as 18.5-point favorites in March madness betting while the total played over the 134.5 posted at online sportsbooks. Eric Bledsoe took control of the game with 29-points from hitting eight 3-pointers. "This is a neutral venue and you've got to have your own energy," Kentucky coach John Calipari said after the game, recalling what he told his players before the game. "You've got to have it from within. You can't expect [the crowd] to give it to us because it's not that kind of venue."