Sports betting roundup: Duke takes over as favorite to win men's March Madness

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Sports betting roundup: Duke takes over as favorite to win men's March Madness

2025-03-25 00:15 Last Updated At：00:41

Duke has taken over as the favorite after the first weekend of this year's NCAA Tournament.

There weren’t as many buzzer-beaters and thrilling finishes as many have been accustomed to so far in March Madness, but there were a few upsets with teams like Arkansas, Mississippi and BYU reaching the Sweet 16.

Going into the tournament, Florida was the BetMGM online sportsbook’s favorite to win the men's national championship, but after two dominant performances showing they are healthy, Duke is now the favorite at +225.

In the Sweet 16 on Sunday, Duke crushed Baylor 89-66 to easily cover the 12.5-point spread. The Blue Devils took in 70% of the bets and 69% of the money. Baylor finished the year 0-11 straight up as an underdog of three or more points and 2-9 in those games against the spread.

While Florida knocked UConn (+9.5) out of the tournament with a 77-75 win Sunday afternoon, the Huskies continued their success against the spread. UConn has covered 14 straight NCAA Tournament games. They covered the spread in every game along the way to winning two straight national championships and then covered the spread in both games this year.

There was a meaningless 3-pointer at the buzzer of the Florida-UConn game, which made the score 77-75 instead of 77-72. That 3-pointer allowed the over bet (150.5 points) to win. Going into the game, 87% of the money was on the over.

Overall in the NCAA Tournament, favorites went 28-24 against the spread, including favorites of six or more points going 19-9. The Big Ten is the best conference in against-the-spread betting, currently 12-4.

There were two upsets on Sunday, with No. 6 Ole Miss taking down No. 3 Iowa State, and although Kentucky was a No. 3 seed, they were underdogs against No. 6 Illinois. Kentucky was +115 on the moneyline and took in 76% of the bets, while Ole Miss was +195 on the moneyline and took in 81% of the bets.

On the PGA Tour, Viktor Hovland won the Valspar Championship at 11 under, beating Justin Thomas by one stroke. In pre-tournament betting, Hovland was +5000 to win and took in just 1.4% of the bets and 0.8% of the money.

The NBA is nearing the end of the regular season and two teams have pulled away from the rest when it comes to championship betting — the Boston Celtics and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Oklahoma City is +185 to win, while Boston is +220.

The Cleveland Cavaliers (+500), Los Angeles Lakers (+700) and Golden State Warriors (+1200) round out the top five.

This column was provided to The Associated Press by BetMGM online sportsbook.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

Trump isn't waiting for future generations to name things after him. It's happening now

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.

Donald Trump isn't leaving it to future generations.

As the first year of his second term wraps up, his administration and allies have put the president’s name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships.

That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On Friday, he plans to attend a ceremony in Florida where local officials will dedicate a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.

It’s unprecedented for a sitting president to embrace tributes of that number and scale, especially those proffered by members of his administration. And while past sitting presidents have typically been honored by local officials naming schools and roads after them, it's exceedingly rare for airports, federal buildings, warships or other government assets to be named for someone still in power.

“At no previous time in history have we consistently named things after a president who was still in office,” said Jeffrey Engel, the David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “One might even extend that to say a president who is still alive. Those kind of memorializations are supposed to be just that — memorials to the passing hero.”

White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the TrumpRx website linked to the president's deals to lower the price of some prescription drugs, along with “overdue upgrades of national landmarks, lasting peace deals, and wealth-creation accounts for children are historic initiatives that would not have been possible without President Trump’s bold leadership.”

"The Administration’s focus isn’t on smart branding, but delivering on President Trump’s goal of Making America Great Again," Huston said.

The White House pointed out that the nation's capital was named after President George Washington and the Hoover Dam was named after President Herbert Hoover while each was serving as president.

For Trump, it’s a continuation of the way he first etched his place onto the American consciousness, becoming famous as a real estate developer who affixed his name in big gold letters on luxury buildings and hotels, a casino and assorted products like neckties, wine and steaks.

As he ran for president in 2024, the candidate rolled out Trump-branded business ventures for watches, fragrances, Bibles and sneakers — including golden high tops priced at $799. After taking office again last year, Trump's businesses launched a Trump Mobile phone company, with plans to unveil a gold-colored smartphone and a cryptocurrency memecoin named $TRUMP.

That’s not to be confused with plans for a physical, government-issued Trump coin that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said the U.S. Mint is planning.

Trump has also reportedly told the owners of Washington’s NFL team that he would like his name on the Commanders’ new stadium. The team’s ownership group, which has the naming rights, has not commented on the idea. But a White House spokeswoman in November called the proposed name “beautiful” and said Trump made the rebuilding of the stadium possible.

The addition of Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center in December so outraged independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that he introduced legislation this week to ban the naming or renaming of any federal building or land after a sitting president — a ban that would retroactively apply to the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace.

“I think he is a narcissist who likes to see his name up there. If he owns a hotel, that’s his business,” Sanders said in an interview. “But he doesn’t own federal buildings.”

Sanders likened Trump's penchant for putting his name on government buildings and more to the actions of authoritarian leaders throughout history.

“If the American people want to name buildings after a president who is deceased, that’s fine. That’s what we do,” Sanders said. “But to use federal buildings to enhance your own position very much sounds like the ‘Great Leader’ mentality of North Korea, and that is not something that I think the American people want.”

Although some of the naming has been suggested by others, the president has made clear he’s pleased with the tributes.

Three months after the announcement of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a name the White House says was proposed by Armenian officials, the president gushed about it at a White House dinner.

“It’s such a beautiful thing, they named it after me. I really appreciate it. It’s actually a big deal,” he told a group of Central Asian leaders.

Engel, the presidential historian, said the practice can send a signal to people "that the easiest way to get access and favor from the president is to play to his ego and give him something or name something after him.”

Some of the proposals for honoring Trump include legislation in Congress from New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney that would designate June 14 as “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day," placing the president with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington and Jesus Christ, whose birthdays are recognized as national holidays.

Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube has introduced legislation that calls for the Washington-area rapid transit system, known as the Metro, to be renamed the “Trump Train.” North Carolina Republican Rep. Addison McDowell has introduced legislation to rename Washington Dulles International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport.

McDowell said it makes sense to give Dulles a new name since Trump has already announced plans to revamp the airport, which currently is a tribute to former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

The congressman said he wanted to honor Trump because he feels the president has been a champion for combating the scourge of fentanyl, a personal issue for McDowell after his brother’s overdose death. But he also cited Trump’s efforts to strike peace deals all over the world and called him “one of the most consequential presidents ever.”

“I think that’s somebody that deserves to be honored, whether they’re still the president or whether they’re not," he said.

More efforts are underway in Florida, Trump’s adopted home.

Republican state lawmaker Meg Weinberger said she is working on an effort to rename Palm Beach International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport, a potential point of confusion with the Dulles effort.

The road that the president will see christened Friday is not the first Florida asphalt to herald Trump upon his return to the White House.

In the south Florida city of Hialeah, officials in December 2024 renamed a street there as President Donald J. Trump Avenue.

Trump, speaking at a Miami business conference the next month, called it a “great honor” and said he loved the mayor for it.

“Anybody that names a boulevard after me, I like,” he said.

He added a few moments later: “A lot of people come back from Hialeah, they say, ‘They just named a road after you.' I say, ‘That’s OK.’ It’s a beginning, right? It’s a start.”