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How much money is bet on ncaa basketball tournament
How Much Money is Wagered on the NCAA Basketball Tournament
It is nearly impossible to determine the total amount actually wagered on the NCAA Tournament.
Not only do you have to track the legal wagering in Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon. But, you can’t forget the illegal wagering online, through bookies and with friends.
On top of that, there is millions (if not billions) bet with office pools and other bracket contests.
So, I did the research based off of what I could figure out. I looked back at the Nevada Gaming Revenue Reports for the month of March. I then made some simple assumptions.
Total Money Bet in Las Vegas Sportsbooks & Profit During March Madness
The first assumption was the January and February action was evenly split between NBA & CBB.
The second is that NBA betting numbers stayed constant during March.
In order to calculate the portion of basketball volume to attribute to tournament time I used the 3-month January-March summary win amount (roughly $83 million). I compared that with the individual month of March’s win amount of around $41 million.
That left about $41 million total for January/February basketball. That gives us a rough estimate of $10 million per sport per month.
Out of the $41 million for March. We can estimate that almost $31m (75%) of sportsbook profits would have come from the boost in NCAA tournament bets.
This past year was a bit of “getting back to normal” after the NCAA Tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns in 2020. While Vegas wasn’t able to continue to grow as it had the last several years, coming back with the second-biggest year ever in terms in profit and third biggest year ever in terms of volume was good to see.
Here’s a look at the yearly numbers dating back to 2004. Keep in mind this isn’t just the games featuring the field of 68. This also includes money bet during conference tournament games and other postseason tournaments.
Vegas Numbers Since 2004 (Estimates)
YEAR
AMT WAGERED
BOOK W/L
RETURN
2021
$378,512,048. 19
$31,415,500
8.3%
2020
No Tournament
—
—
2019
$387,176,056.34
$27,489,500
7.1%
2018
$458,189,114.78
$28,746,823
6.27%
2017
$351,808,012.49
$33,808,750
9.61%
2016
$337,788,235.29
$17,227,200
5.10%
2015
$300,225,806.45
$22,336,800
7.44%
2014
$274,831,858.41
$15,528,000
5.65%
2013
$259,426,847.66
$17,200,000
6.63%
2012
$230,928,281.46
$17,065,600
7.39%
2011
$205,224,043.72
$15,022,400
7.32%
2010
$211,248,677.25
$15,970,400
7.56%
2009
$174,793,893.13
$9,159,200
5.24%
2008
$191,171,631. 21
$13,477,600
7.05%
2007
$182,615,803.81
$13,404,000
7.34%
2006
$156,422,264.88
$16,299,200
10.42%
2005
$136,707,368.42
$12,987,200
9.50%
2004
$122,313,375.80
$9,601,600
7.85%
SEGMENT
AMT WAGERED
BOOK W/L
RETURN
Avg.
$256,434,312
$18,631,751
7.27%
Last 5
$382,594,693
$27,737,555
7.25%
The amount of legal action taken at sportsbooks during the tournament has ranged from $120-$458 million.
For comparison, there was roughly $179 million in Super Bowl bets this past year.
Keep in mind the Super Bowl is one event, while the college basketball tournament takes into account every game played for the entire month.
Most of the money is bet on the spreads of the games. There will be a small amount on money lines and totals, but fans love to throw down on their team to win the tournament. However, if you look at the seed history not many teams worse than a 3-seed have cut down the nets.
Look at How Much is Wagered on NCAA Tournament Outside of Sin City
A while back there was an FBI study done to try and figure out the gambling totals during NCAA Tournament time. Based off there results around $3 billion was illegally wagered. That is roughly 10 times the amount bet legally. This includes wagers placed online, with local bookies and in other bracket pools. All of which are considered a form a gambling.
Any way you slice it, no estimates or studies can really come close to giving us a full picture. I’d be willing to bet that the numbers in the FBI study are on the conservative side of things.
There are simply too many options for bracket pools to keep track of. Whether it’s an office pool or just some guys that wanted to throw together a contest. You also have to factor that the majority of the “bets” involve cash. Anytime cash is involved it’s hard to track the exact amount.
The American Gaming Association has came out this year and said they expect $10.4 billion to be bet on March Madness. The crazy part is they only estimate 3% ($295 million) to be wagered legally. The other 97% ($10.1 billion) is from offshore books and local bookies.
The Big Dance also has a negative impact on U.S. productivity. Based on a report by Challanger, Gray & Christmas. It comes at a huge cost to the American Industry.
If the roughly 50 million people who fill out a bracket spend one hour of work time on it. It comes out to a staggering $1.2 billion lost in productivity.
How Much Money Is Bet On March Madness
College basketball provides bettors from all over the world with opportunities to win big. If you play your cards right – or more aptly, your bracket – you could see yourself on the right side of a huge payday.
If you are wondering how much money is bet on March Madness each year, the American Gaming Association (AGA) reports that near $10 billion was gambled on March Madness in 2021 via illegal and legal bets, with that number expected to grow in the years to come.
Visit Our Best March Madness Sportsbooks
This grand total of $10 billion wagered accounts for bets done at legal sports betting sites in Vegas, inter-office pools, online sportsbooks, and the NCAA basketball wagering with your cousin. Has he paid you yet? Come on, Jimmy, pony up!
People Love To Bet On Sports, Especially March Madness
One in five American adults contribute to how much is bet on March Madness every year, by filling out a bracket, creating roughly 149 million brackets in total. There are about 329 million people in the U.S. and nearly 40 million of them are laying down wagers on NCAA basketball.
The average bet on March Madness is between $20 and $50 US, or the cost of a latte at Starbucks. We kid. We’re all about extravagant coffee with nine pumps of mocha syrup and 13 shots of espresso to get us through the day.
This chart shows the total handle – a fancy way to say how much money is bet on March Madness – in Las Vegas for the NCAA Tournament since 2004.
Total Amount Bet in Las Vegas Since 2004
Year
Amount Wagered (USD)
2021
$501,500,000
2019
$460,000,000*
2018
$458,189,114.78
2017
$351,808,012.49
2016
$337,788,235.29
2015
$300,225,806.45
2014
$274,831,858.41
2013
$259,426,847.66
2012
$230,928,281. 46
2011
$205,224,043.72
2010
$211,248,677.25
2009
$174,793,893.13
2008
$191,171,631.21
2007
$182,615,803.81
2006
$156,422,264.88
2005
$136,707,368.42
2004
$122,313,375.80
*approximation based on AGA numbers
What About Traditional Sports Betting Types?
Out of the 40 million people in the United States who wager on the men's basketball tournament, only a select few will win their NCAA Tournament bracket contests. In fact, you have a 1 in 9.2 quintillion shot of picking all 63 games correctly. For this reason, we suggest looking into other Madness betting angles on top of bracketry. We’re not saying you shouldn’t create a bracket, but you can bet on March Madness in other ways too.
We recommend the following:
Moneyline: Picking a winner of a game straight up
Point Spread: Choosing a team to cover by a certain number of points
Totals: Betting on the combined score to go OVER or UNDER the oddsmaker’s set number
Props: Individual player and team milestones like fouls, threes, etc.
Parlays: Bundling multiple bets on one betting slip – you can add other sports as well
Our March Madness betting tips, NCAAB Betting News, Odds, Free Picks and Consensus pages can help you handicap your bets, identify betting trends and review futures odds.
What About The NCAA? Does It Clean Up During March Madness?
No matter how much money is bet on the NCAA basketball tournament each year, the competing schools do not see any of the money, no matter how many times your school is billed as “the team to win. ” But they do get a piece of that sweet ad revenue and broadcasting rights pie.
CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting – you know, the people who bring us NCIS (insert big city here) and every single Atlanta sports game ever – paid $19.6 billion for the streaming and television rights to the college basketball tournament from 2011 to 2032.
By 2032, Shaq will be president and CEO of the entire world and we’ll all be living in hypoallergenic yurts, but there’s a possibility UCLA will finally win another title.
The average person watches at least six hours of March Madness each year (not including conference tournaments or basketball bets research), forgoing physical activity and sitting on their couch to watch Jim Boeheim’s zone defense. In 2018 alone, over 97 million Americans tuned in – that includes the people watching at home, on their phones and from their tablets. For context, in 2014, the University of Louisville’s basketball program made $41.7 million – that’s before they had to vacate some of their titles. Thanks, Rick Pitino!
March Madness is college basketball’s version of the Super Bowl. Just taking a quick glance at how much is bet on the NCAA basketball tournament each year, you can tell there are betting opportunities everywhere. Even if you just stick to traditional bracket pools, you can still find fun spots to bet against your cousin.
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NCAA Basketball League Betting Features
The second most popular basketball league in the US is the NCAA. This is a tournament of student teams with its own characteristic features that radically distinguish it from the NBA. Consider the features of betting on the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) basketball league in bookmakers.
NCAA Basic Rules
First things to know:
A match consists of two halves of 20 minutes;
teams have 30 seconds to attack;
10 seconds are given to transfer the ball from one's own half to another's.
The NCAA Championship is divided into three different divisions according to status. The best universities are collected in the first, respectively, less successful - in the third. On the sweepstakes, they regularly offer to bet on the confrontation in the first division, less often in the second, you are unlikely to find quotes for the third.
American student championship games are quite unpredictable. The reason is that the youth championship. Teams lack stability in the rhythm of the game due to the fact that basketball players are at the stage of formation of their work ethic. Here, outcomes for large odds are played much more often than in the NBA. The reason is that bookmakers are not always able to give correct quotes due to various circumstances, especially if the championship has just started.
The statistics in this case are not particularly revealing, since after the end of the last season, many young stars went to the NBA draft. The composition has changed dramatically and it is difficult to predict exactly what to expect from the guys who have recently entered the university. Therefore, it is best to bet on the NCAA online, when you can visually assess what is happening on the site.
As in any basketball competition, in the National Collegiate Athletic Association league, first of all, you should pay attention to the total. It is often distributed unevenly - the first half is less productive than the second. And the difference is pretty big. Bookmakers give an average of five points more in the second half than in the first. This is due to the fact that at the end of the match the teams try harder, give their best to achieve the desired result.
Bet on the NCAA league
It's also interesting how teams perform on the floor. If there is a clear favorite, for which quotes are around 1.30, basically, at the beginning of the game, he gives a result that allows you to play in economy mode. In such a situation, it makes sense to bet on total less than in the second half, since the teams in it will simply serve the number. Well, in case of an equal fight, the total will be measured.
If the teams made a lot of three-pointers in the first five minutes and the total went up, there is an option to check this trend in the future. You can bet on total over in the first half, and then look at the situation. In case of a big gap, most likely, the second half of the teams will dry up, and if the fight is equal, the total will be higher, as the basketball players will gnaw out the victory. If in the first game segment the leader defeated the outsider by 15-20 points, it makes sense to bet on the underdog with a handicap, since the leader in such cases slows down and allows the opponent to catch up in numbers on the scoreboard.
Factors affecting NCAA match results
Home court play is a big advantage.
In the NCAA, some fans care for their clubs even more than in the NBA. For example, the kind of support that Duke fans give their players would be the envy of many professional clubs. The schedule of matches in the student league is drawn up in such a way that teams play series - away and home.
During the period of games at home, teams almost always strengthen their positions in the standings. And the three-point handicap laid down on the host by bookmakers is often biasedly small. It makes sense to take it when the notorious leader of the championship does not come to visit.
Pre-match mentality is paramount.
In the away series, when basketball players can cover the west and east coasts in a week, you should not expect them to fire in the eyes (of course, if there is no special tournament motivation). Even mature NBA players don't benefit from traveling, let alone young talents. Team coaching staffs can deliberately let the leaders rest in deliberately losing matches on the road, so that they shoot to the fullest in games at home with direct competitors.
In mid-February, you should pay attention to outsiders.
They can be roughly divided into two types - dull bottom and biting bullies. Both the former and the latter no longer formally claim to participate in the March Madness, but if the former have resigned themselves to their fate and dream about the next season with tears in their eyes, the latter, based on personal motivation, are ready to fight to the end.
The role of the coach in the NCAA is much more important than in the NBA. And everything depends on how he slanders his wards. Expect surprises at the end of winter, when the leaders are slowly preparing for the playoffs, and the guys from lower ranked clubs are trying to shine brighter on the eve of the NBA draft.
Personal relationships are of great importance in students' games.
While professionals are generally comfortable with personal grudges, trash talk and dirty play, young guys can hold grudges. And the revenge factor plays a role. The desire to take revenge, without tournament goals, purely out of youthful enthusiasm, can also manifest itself. The teams meet twice in a season, and if there is a meeting of teams with character, the victory of the club that lost the first time is more likely.
NCAA features
Differences in odds between offices. Different bookmakers are able to show inconsistent opinions in quotes based on their own analytics. Even options with forks are quite likely. You should carefully study the lines and find inconsistencies that help reduce risks.
Information. She is not enough. Insider sources are very important to playing in the NCAA.
Instability of players due to their age.
Summary
NCAA is an exciting and highly emotional competition, but quite difficult to predict. To get the data you are looking for, sometimes you need to spend whole days on the net. However, if the necessary analytics are on hand, there is every chance to hit the jackpot, since the college basketball league, like no other, is beneficial for betting on sensations.
There are 8 Russians in the NCAA this season. How are they? - The Interception - Blogs
Editor's note: You are reading the user blog Interception, which talks about European basketball. Don't forget that pluses are still the best way to thank the author.
Before the start of last season, I wrote this text. Then I talked to almost all the Russians who were preparing to compete in the NCAA - there were 11 of them at that time - and tried to understand why Russian youth began to leave more massively for American universities. There have never been such a number of Russians in the NCAA.
A year and a half has passed since then, and half of the guys have left: Konstantin Dotsenko is now playing in the Loko farm club, Zakhar Vedischev is the basis of Krasnodar, Mark Tikhonenko signed a contract with Astana, Andre Toure recently played in Maykop in the second Super League, and Samson Ruzhentsev moved to the Serbian "Mega".
But some stayed in America. They were joined by a few more guys who either just left Russia or got into the NCAA from American schools or the NJCAA. In this text, I will talk about all the Russians who play in the first division of the main student league in the world. If last season I wanted to explain why exactly they are leaving, now I have focused on their career.
If you like reading more, then below is a large text with comments from the players themselves; but this time you have the opportunity not only to read, but also to watch a video about all of our in the NCAA. Inside is my story and a video interview with the guys.
If you watch a YouTube video, don't forget to thumbs up and leave a comment. This will help promote the channel. Subscribe if you love Russian basketball and want to learn more about it.
And now - the promised text about our guys in America.
What is the NCAA
The NCAA is the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States and Canada. It includes almost 1300 schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions. The teams of these universities are represented not only in basketball - the NCAA also has competitions in American football, wrestling, fencing, bowling, softball, gymnastics, tennis and God knows what else.
But basketball is a very popular sport in the association. Both guys and girls have three divisions, which are ranked by strength. This text is only about those Russians who compete in the first, strongest, division.
The NCAA has a playoff called March Madness. When knockout games start, the whole country switches from professionals to students. Although during the season, the teams also have enough attention from fans: the clubs play in large and good arenas, many people come to the matches, the games are shown on television, and sometimes on national television. There are even universities whose fans spend the night in front of the arena in the hope of having time to buy a ticket.
So the NCAA is a really serious tournament, albeit a student one.
How many Russians are there
I spent an hour and a half of my life checking the composition of all the colleges that are represented in the first division. There are 358 of them. I broke my eyes, learned about the existence of several countries and even about the presence of basketball in these countries, but still I counted all the Russians.
I got eight people, and now we will get to know them better. The sequence on my list doesn't mean anything, it's just that way because I talked to the guys in that order.
I hope I haven't missed anyone. Please write in the comments if you know someone whom I have overlooked.
Evdokimov is the newest member of the NCAA Division I. He joined the Charleston Cougars - the name of the team of the University of Charleston from South Carolina - in early December last year.
This university belongs to mid-major. In the American system, there is a gradation of universities by strength - from low-major to high-major. Mid-major is the middle level. Most Russian guys perform at universities that fall into this category.
Before moving to the USA, Nikita played for the youth team of Lokomotiv-Kuban and for the national team. Last summer, the defender represented Russia under 20 at the Euro Challenger, even though he was only 18.
Evdokimov has an interesting story about how he fell in love with basketball. In fact, it is strange that he did not go to handball, because his dad is the famous Russian handball player Yegor Evdokimov. Six-time champion of Russia, champion of Spain, champion of Belarus, champion of Ukraine, participant of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. At the dawn of his career, Yegor Viktorovich played in his homeland, in the Chelyabinsk region, the city of Snezhinsk. Nikita was born there.
- I fell in love with basketball when I was 9 or 10 years old. My cousin and grandmother and I went on vacation to the Crimea. There was a playground where I constantly ran and played. Grandma suggested trying to sign up for basketball. And before that, I didn’t consider basketball as a sport at all ... But I went to a training session and instantly fell in love. Didn't miss it at all. Then Lokomotiv saw me at the Russian Championship. Together with a team from my city, from Chekhov, we took fourth place, and everyone was very surprised. I was seen by coach Petar Marinkovic, who called me to Loko, ”recalls Evdokimov.
He says that he could have been in the red-green system even earlier. He was invited to the Yug-Basket camp - this is a camp organized by the club and within which it looks for players in its youth system - but then Evdokimov was with relatives in the United States and could not come.
He ended up in the Loko system in 2017. True, Evdokimov says that, even while playing for Krasnodar, he often thought that he actually wanted to try his hand at American basketball. He has relatives living in the USA, he has been there more than once, and when the chance to move to the university appeared, he did not hesitate for a long time.
Evdokimov learned about the university's interest in him in advance, so he spent the summer with benefit: he trained individually with personal trainers in Moscow and Cyprus, where his father plays handball. There, the defender, at the request of the university coach, worked hard on three-pointers and performed at least 500 long-range shots a day.
Evdokimov will be coached at the College of Charleston by Pat Kelsey, a strong specialist who is widely known in college basketball. He once worked with Jeff Teague and Chris Paul.
Alex is not short for Alexander, but his passport name. He was not born in Russia, but in Canada, his parents went there to give birth to Alex. In this country, he lived the first year of his life, after which he left for Moscow. In memory of Canada, Alex has citizenship (he has a double one).
But he started playing basketball in Russia.
— I started playing basketball at Gloria when I was 10-11 years old. People came to my school - and I studied at an ordinary secondary school - who were looking for young guys who were ready to play basketball. They came into my class, saw that I was tall, did a couple of tests, asked me different questions and invited me to practice. I studied at Gloria for a long time, then I got into the MBA Junior Junior League, from there I was taken to the Super League. I played there for literally a year, and after graduating from high school I decided that it would be wise to go to the United States. I contacted Skryagin (Alexander Skryagin, ProFuturo Sports, - note "Interception"), because he was the only person who knows more about moving to the USA than me. We talked to him, I dropped my highlights to him, and he helped me find a school, - says Kotov.
Alex arrived in the US in 2017 and entered the Montverde Academy. This is a very famous program that prepares players for the NCAA. Kotov spent a year in Montverde and won the championship with this team, the result for the season is 35-0. Alex's partners then included, for example, RJ Barrett, who now plays for the New York Knicks in the NBA, and Turkish Efes center Philip Petrushev.
Alex left Montverde not immediately for the NCAA, but for the NJCAA. It is an association of junior colleges and is also often referred to as Juko. A common story for those who feel like they're not ready for the NCAA yet, but want to play hard and improve. Kotov spent two years in this association, after which he moved to the NCAA, to the Illinois State Redbirds team. This is also a representative university of the mid-major category.
Alex has six months left to study at the university, but he can play in the team for another two and a half years. This happened because the players have the right to use the redshirt option. In fact, this is the right of the player to extend his career at the university, even if he has already graduated from the university. Plus, there's also the "cancellation" of the season due to the coronavirus (this happened last year), which also doesn't count, as well as the "cancellation" of the season due to injury (this happened to Alex in his second year in the NJCAA).
In general, these rules are very complicated.
- Due to an injury in my second year at the NJCAA, I opted to save the year. That's plus one season. In addition, this year I had a lot of misunderstandings with the coach, it all started last year. I thought that it would be possible to influence it somehow, to establish relations with him in the summer, but it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought. Therefore, after a huge number of meetings, we came to the conclusion that this year it would be easier for me to also take the option to save the year. So this year I'm graduating from university, getting an education, but I still have, roughly speaking, two seasons to play in the NCAA, - says Kotov.
Lakhin is the only Russian who represents a high-major university. This means that the university where Vitya plays often goes to the "March Madness" and has a tangible chance of winning the NCAA.
And the story of Lakhin began in Anapa. The parents wanted to send their sons - Vitya and his brother Vasya - to some kind of team sport so that they would play together. And chose volleyball. But because of the coach, they did not last long in the volleyball section and eventually went to basketball.
Lahin started in fourth grade but quickly rose to the city team. And in the Krasnodar Territory, if you play for the city team, then you are in full view of the Lokomotiv scouts. Vitya did not play Loko on a permanent basis, but by the 7-8th grade he was regularly on the team to participate in the Russian championships. The Railroaders took him as a reinforcement player - this is a common practice in children's competitions.
Further - a matter of chance. Loko juniors played in the final stage of the Russian championship and met CSKA twice - in the group stage and in the semi-finals. Lakhin gave two good games and ... received an invitation from the "soldiers".
At first he did not think of moving anywhere and stayed to finish the season in the south. But summer came, and he still went to see it. He was offered to stay after the first practice. Vitya talked to his parents and a month later he arrived at CSKA.
- The first season was probably the most emotional, full of some moments, memories. Because my brother and I arrived for the first time in a big city. On the one hand, this is a great freedom, because there are no parents nearby, but, on the other hand, this is also a great responsibility. Because you have never done the things that your parents did for you before, like laundry, cleaning, all sorts of small things. Even a waste of money: you never thought about it before, you were given - you spent it. And here you have money, and you know that if you spend everything, then at the end of the month you won’t have any left, ”recalls Vitya.
Lakhin reached the final stage of the youth Euroleague with CSKA and spent a pretty good season overall. Alexey Zhukov, the head coach of the “army” CYBL, left to work as an assistant in Nizhny Novgorod, and Maxim Sharafan came to CSKA from Lokomotiv. He worked with Vitya for three years, and during this time Lakhin managed to understand that he wants to play in Russia only at the highest level - in CSKA - and if it doesn’t work out, then it’s better to leave.
- I realized that it would be very difficult for me to get into the base. This is a top club with the highest goals, and as a young player I need to be not even the same as everyone else, but better, because I have no experience. It was necessary here and now to show some level and bring results. Let's be realistic, there were no players who can immediately enter the CSKA system and show something like that for a long time. Probably the Swede was the last one. I realized that I can’t do that, and since my dream is to be in the NBA, I decided to move closer to this league, this Wednesday, to America. That's why I'm here, - says Vitya.
But not everything was so simple. Back in Russia, Lakhin managed to get injured. He fell in the game moment, and his knee hurt. The medical staff did not suspect anything, and Vitya continued to train. The state of health worsened, but then the pandemic came, everyone went into self-isolation, and the center just went home. The knee was still swollen, but the pain was slowly receding. Vitya did not train and therefore did not feel any signs of deterioration. He already knew that he was leaving for America, and just waited for all the permits.
The injury happened in February and the departure was due in September. In the summer, Lakhin himself did an MRI, which showed that he had ... a torn meniscus. He took the results of the examination to the surgeon who scheduled the operation. Vitya went for it and began to recover in Russia, and he came to the USA with an already operated knee.
Everything should have been fine, but when he started running, the pain returned. Lakhin did another MRI, and it showed that the same meniscus was completely torn. The doctors said that it would take six months to recover. Therefore, Vitya simply missed his first season in the NCAA.
— All this time I didn't train, but I was always with the team: in scouting, in the locker room, in training. All lessons were online, and we lived in an apartment with the team. So that year helped me a lot, because even though I didn’t play, I was in the system and I knew the guys. It was my year of adaptation - to a new culture, to people, to new faces, to food. I had the same feeling as when I came from a small town to Moscow. You leave Russia for any other country - even to America, even to Italy, even to Spain - and you go through the same thing, Lakhin believes.
He adds that the Cincinnati had a new head coach at the end of last season and it was a difficult moment. A new specialist was appointed the day before Lakhin's departure to Russia, when he did not yet understand whether he would remain in the team for the next season or not. Whether to leave it, decided the new head coach. But in the end, the center managed to meet with him before departure and find a common language. The coach wanted to protect the Russians in the squad.
During the summer Vitya worked in the USA on his body and improved his skills. The season began in October, and in December, Lahin was the best freshman of the week in his conference. By the way, he has a situation similar to Alex: academically, Lahin is a sophomore, but he is considered a rookie in the team.
Andrey Savrasov, Georgia Southern Eagles
2021/22 stats: 14 games, 23.7 minutes average
11.9 points (51.5% two-pointers, 30% three-pointers, 73.1% free throws), 6 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.4 block shots, 0.9 steals, 1 loss Andrey's first coach is a well-known Russian specialist Oleg Aktsipetrov.
— I remember that at first I had very different hobbies: football, basketball, taekwondo… But after the first two or three years of training, I realized that basketball is really mine, that I want to do just that. Slowly, I began to play for the sports school of the Admiralteisky district, for the Zenit Junior Junior League, played for the Russian national team U16, U18. We went to different tournaments, and somewhere the scouts saw my game and invited me to the USA, says Savrasov.
Andrey moved to America three years ago - in January 2019of the year. Now he is finishing his third year at the university, in the American education system it is possible to start studying in the middle of the academic year and, accordingly, then graduate also in the middle of the academic year.
Savrasov managed to play for the Texas Tech team, where he spent a year and a half. The first six months he did not play, he spent in redshirt mode - he trained, worked on his body, was with the team, but did not play for it. But the next season already played in the status of a freshman, that is, a freshman.
Andrei didn't get much playing time, but he still wanted to stay at the university. It was a high-major, and Savrasov wanted to prove that he deserved another role.
But then I talked to the head coach, and together they decided that it would be better to change the university in order to continue their career. The coach even helped find a new team, and that's how Savrasov ended up in Georgia, in the Georgia Southern Eagles team. This is a mid-major university.
Now in his second year with the new team, he is in the starting five and generally has a good role on the court. In theory, Andrei can play for the university for another two years, although he graduates from the university in a year.
Vladislav Goldin, Florida Atlantic Owls
2021/22 stats: 14 games, 16.5 minutes avg. free throws), 5.5 rebounds, 0.4 assists, 0.6 block shots, 0.4 interceptions, 1.3 losses He played with his 2001, but at some point the team just fell apart and disappeared.
Goldin was sent to play by the year 2000, and the coach of this team turned out to be familiar with the coach of CSKA-DYBL. Vlad and another guy were offered to the "soldiers" - just to look at them. But the screening went well, and after one of the training sessions, Vlad was offered to move to Moscow. New school, new surroundings, heavy loads, training twice a day - Vlad says that the first six months in the capital were the most difficult time in his life.
- At that time, I probably did not quite understand where I was moving and how much it changed. To be honest, I didn't even really know what DUBL was. Wasn't very knowledgeable. Youth League, Junior Team, Superleague… I knew the tournaments where we played: first the Southern Federal District, then the Russian Championship. When I found out that I was already in Moscow and had to go to the CYBL team for a tryout, I even got scared. But they left me, and I trained at CSKA for another four years. Then he played for the Russian national team U18 and U19, after which he received an offer to try himself in America. I decided to take a chance and moved there to the Prep school,” says Goldin.
Prep school is short for preparatory school. In essence, this is an opportunity to play basketball in the USA before going to university.
In October 2019, Vlad entered Patnam School in Connecticut. This is a small private school about an hour from Boston. Together with the team, Goldin became the champion of America in the championship among preparatory schools.
After that, Vlad was called to Texas, to the Texas Tech team - to the same team where Andrey Savrasov had played for a year and a half. Goldin saw that this was a big and serious high-major team, saw the conditions for training and accepted their invitation without hesitation.
— In Texas, things are a little different. The way we played there was not like the way I played before, so the first experience was difficult. And then the head coach left us, replacing TexasTech with Texas. Most of the coaching staff left with him, and our team did not quite understand what to do. Only the assistant coach remained with us. And in the end, I decided to move to another team, to Florida, - say Goldin.
Due to the coronavirus, Vlad has the same situation as most student athletes: academically he is a sophomore, but the last sports season did not count, so he is a freshman in the team. Goldin has three years left to study, and he can play four more.
He himself says that his current team plays more European basketball, so he feels great there.
Aleksandr Glushkov, Appalachian State Mountaineers
2021/22 stats: 7 games, 4.7 minutes average
2 points (60% 2-pointers, 0% 3-pointers, 33.3% free throws), 1 .1 rebounds, no assists, 0.1 blocks, 0.1 steals, no losses
Born in Vladivostok, Glushkov started playing basketball at the age of 13 when he went to summer camp. I came home and told my father: "I want to play basketball." Parents sent Sasha to the section.
Glushkov's first coach is Eduard Sushko. After a year of working with him, Sasha was invited to the Spartak-Primorye system. He played in the Junior Junior League for a year, after which the entire management of the team and almost the entire squad moved to the PSC Sakhalin. At the same time, the base of the club remained in Vladivostok. Glushkov spent a year in the new club, after which he received an invitation from Moscow, from the IBA. His coach Alexander Antipov invited him.
And then it was a matter of chance, and a year later Sasha was already flying to the USA to study at school.
— I came to Moscow and played there for a year. When we were preparing for the Summer Spartakiad in Krasnaya Pakhra at the Trinta base, a coach from the USA arrived there. He was familiar with Alexander Antipov, because before that our guy had already played at the same school. He came just to relax, but he also wanted to look at the players. He probably liked me, and he invited me to school. I took the chance and got into high school. I spent 11-12 classes there, received several offers and decided that I would play in Appalachian State, says Glushkov.
Now Sasha is in his second year, but as you know, last year doesn't count. So Glushkov is considered a “freshman” in the team and can play for the university for another three and a half years, while he has two and a half to study.
When Sasha arrived at the university, he weighed about 90 kg. But now he has noticeably added muscle mass. He began to grow muscles during the last season, but he did the main work in the summer. Due to problems with visas, he could not go home to Russia, and he went to a friend in Houston. There he lived for a month, ate a lot and rocked. As a result, he entered the new season in excellent physical shape. True, the coach still does not really trust him.
Glushkov University is a mid-major who, last year, entered March Madness for the first time in 20 years. Sasha was not released then, but he nevertheless felt the atmosphere of the main student event of the year. Here's what he says about it:
- It was ... unbelievable (unbelievable - approx. "Interception"). Very cool feeling. 64 top teams, all at the highest level. We had two or three hotels, each floor was dedicated to a specific team. I don’t know how much it could be called the same “March Madness”, because, of course, all the measures were taken anyway. We had a quarantine, we had to be tested every day. And so everything was at the highest level,” recalls Glushkov.
David Didenko, UT Martin Skyhawks
2021/22 stats: 11 games, 17 minutes average
6.2 points (37.3% two-pointers, 37.8% three-pointers, 33.3% free throws), 3.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.3 blocks, 0.2 steals, 1.7 turnovers 90,003 90,002 David has probably the most atypical fate among all our guys who now play in the first division of the NCAA.
Didenko was born in the north, in the city of Yakutsk. He remembers his childhood quite vividly: he says that the city authorities allowed not to go to school at -45 degrees Celsius, and if the thermometer was only -43, you had to pull yourself together, stick yourselves into a thick down jacket and stomp to school.
— I had a healthy down jacket, maybe five centimeters. I walked around like a big bubble. When I was 8 or 9 years old, we had -57 degrees in winter. Very cold. I didn’t leave the house for two days,” Didenko recalls.
In 2010, David ended up in the USA even before he started playing basketball. He was 10. His older sister was leaving for New York to study English, and David just went with her for a month.
While still in Russia, they found something for him to do in the USA. On the classifieds website, the family looked at a message from a Russian coach who lived there, his name was Boris Karebin. The coach was needed so that David would not just mess around in the States.
But the boy got so caught up in basketball that he eventually wanted to stay. Parents allowed, and he went to an American school. Karebin trained him in Brighton Beach, this is a Russian-speaking area, so immersion in American culture was gradual.
- I first lived in New York, where I arrived, and then I traveled. Lived in Florida, then studied in Georgia, in Tennessee. I travel a lot around the country - sometimes I live there, sometimes there. Somehow I quickly learned English, apparently because I was still young. Literally in a year. In Russia, I studied English for three classes, but could not learn it. Here I first lived with my sister, she pushed me to talk to people, and somehow everything turned out by itself, - says Didenko.
David spent his first year after school in Juko. Remember the story of Alex Kotov? This is the same league that prepares players who have not yet grown up to the NCAA. But already in the second year, Didenko ended up in the first division, at the University of Georgia.
He is currently a UT Martin Skyhawks player, where UT is the University of Tennessee. Accordingly, David now lives and studies in this state. He has a year and a half left at the university, and he can still play the same amount at the university level.
At the same time, he is 21 years old and automatically enters the NBA draft next year. In mocks - that is, expert predictions - he is not drafted, but he still has to play the whole season, so everything is in his hands.
Last on the list - not by value, but simply because he is the only Russian I could not contact - Pavel Zakharov from California Baptist Lancers.
Zakharov was born in Sør-Varanger, Norway. In Russia, Pasha played for the Zenit youth team and helped CSKA play in the youth Euroleague, and in 2018, after playing for the Russian U18 team at the European Championship, he left for the Montverde Academy. We talked about it a little earlier.
He was considered a four-star recruit. In American sports, when they want to talk about the prospects of a particular player, they talk about him in terms of stars, and four stars is very good. Such an assessment helped him get into the Gonzaga College in the NCAA - this is one of the top programs, which, for example, reached the NCAA finals last season, having suffered its first loss of the season in this very final. Pasha then did not go to the parquet. A year before, the team did not get into the "March Madness" only because the championship was stopped due to a pandemic.
Zakharov spent two seasons at this university and moved to the California Baptist Lancers in the summer of 2021. Most likely due to playing time, because, obviously, it was much more difficult to get it in Gonzaga. But even at the new university, he still has an average of 10 minutes on the floor and one and a half rebounds. By the way, about playing on the shields: the height of the Russian center is 213 centimeters, in America these guys are called seven-footers.
This is almost all I know about Pavel Zakharov.
It seems that the Russians in the first division of the NCAA are over. If you know someone else that I forgot, please write in the comments.
Thank you for your attention! I will be glad if you share the text or video with your friends who are interested in young Russian players.
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You also have to factor that the majority of the “bets” involve cash. Anytime cash is involved it’s hard to track the exact amount.
We kid. We’re all about extravagant coffee with nine pumps of mocha syrup and 13 shots of espresso to get us through the day.
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We’re not saying you shouldn’t create a bracket, but you can bet on March Madness in other ways too.
” But they do get a piece of that sweet ad revenue and broadcasting rights pie.
Thanks, Rick Pitino!
Consider the features of betting on the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) basketball league in bookmakers. 
The reason is that bookmakers are not always able to give correct quotes due to various circumstances, especially if the championship has just started. 
Even mature NBA players don't benefit from traveling, let alone young talents. Team coaching staffs can deliberately let the leaders rest in deliberately losing matches on the road, so that they shoot to the fullest in games at home with direct competitors. 
In fact, it is strange that he did not go to handball, because his dad is the famous Russian handball player Yegor Evdokimov. Six-time champion of Russia, champion of Spain, champion of Belarus, champion of Ukraine, participant of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. At the dawn of his career, Yegor Viktorovich played in his homeland, in the Chelyabinsk region, the city of Snezhinsk. Nikita was born there. 
