Sweet 16: Arizona vs Houston Betting Picks, Odds, & Predictions March 24th

The last game played on Thursday, March 24th, features the best of all the Sweet 16 matchups in terms of how highly the two teams are ranked. At 9:59PM EST at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX, the 2nd ranked team in the entire NCAA in Houston Cougars will go up against the 3rd ranked team in the Arizona Wildcats.

A really awesome matchup here, with Arizona as the slight favorite, currently favored by 2 points with the game total set at 145. 

Looking at the moneyline odds below, there is slight value on getting Houston on FanDuel Sportsbook. They are priced at +116 on FanDuel, while most other books have them closer to +110. It is no surprise to see Arizona favored here.

Despite Houston being the higher ranked team analytically, Arizona is still the 1 seed in their region while Houston is the 5th seed. 

Starting with the 1 seeded Arizona, they are coming off an absolute sweat-fest against TCU. They were barely able to come out with a win in a game that went to overtime, and also featured some pretty favorable calls from the refs in Arizona’s favor. Overall, Arizona has to be disappointed with their start to the NCAA tourney. They did win by 17 against Wright State in their first round matchup, but they still did not look sharp. They had 19 turnovers in that game, and followed it up with another 16 against TCU.

In their last 4 games they have 65 turnovers total. Being that loose with the ball won’t fly against a Houston team that has the 10th rated defense in college basketball, and also does a great job at forcing turnovers. Where Arizona does have the advantage, though, is in terms of size and overall talent. This Arizona squad is probably the most talented team in the nation in terms of sheer talent up and down the roster. Led by stud guard Bennedict Mathurin and center Christian Koloko, Arizona is loaded with talent. They also get guard Kerr Kriisa back from injury, who has struggled in his return but should benefit from a couple days off. 

Houston, on the other hand, doesn’t have the high end talent that Arizona does, but they might be the most consistent and evenly balanced team in the nation. I already mentioned that they have the 10th best defense in the NCAA, and, well, they also have the 10th best offense. Losing stud guard Marcus Sasser for the season definitely hurts Houston’s talent overall, but they have just kept on winning. Unlike Arizona, they have also looked very sharp in their first two games, with a combined win total of 29 points in their first two matchups. In the first round they dominated UAB in a 14 point victory, and followed that up with an even more impressive showing against Illinois in a 15 point win. Overall, no team has looked better than Houston two games into the tourney.

I love the value of both the Houston moneyline as well as them to cover the spread. As evidenced below, most books price this game at Houston +2, but thanks to the odds page we were able to get this at +2.5 at -110 odds, as shown below. I don’t see Arizona being able to solve their turnover issues, especially against a Houston defense who is great at creating turnovers. 

Houston vs Arizona pick: 

The best March Madness betting pick for this game is Houston +2.5 at -110 odds. This was bet on FanDuel Sportsbook.

I also love the value of getting Houston’s moneyline odds at +116 on FanDuel as well. So, I hit ’em both!

Houston vs Arizona prediction:

My prediction is that Houston will win this game 78-70.