Sweet 16: Arizona vs Houston 3/24/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Arizona Wildcats and Houston Cougars clash Thursday in the college basketball NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 from the AT&T Center.

The Houston Cougars come into the sweet 16 after picking up a 68-53 win over Illinois in the second round last time out. Taze Moore led the Cougars with 21 points on 9 of 18 shooting with a team-high 7 rebounds and a pair of steals while Jamal Shead had 18 points on 7 of 13 shooting with 3 steals and Kyler Edwards added 15 points with 4 threes and a team-high 4 assists to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Houston in the win. Fabian White Jr. also added 7 rebounds of his own in the victory for the Cougars.

The Arizona Wildcats will try to push onto the Elite 8 after emerging with an 85-80 OT win over TCU last time out. Bennedict Mathurin led the Wildcats in scoring with 30 points on 8 of 19 shooting with 3 threes and an 11 of 13 mark from the foul line along with 8 boards and 4 assists while Christian Koloko had 28 points on 12 of 13 shooting from the field with a team-high 12 rebounds for the double-double along with 3 blocks as well. Dalen Terry also added a team-high 5 assists and 5 steals as well in the winning effort for Arizona.

Houston is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 12-3 ATS in their last 15 games as an underdog while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 neutral site games as an underdog. Arizona is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 NCAA tournament games while the over is 7-1 in their last 8 games overall.

I get the case to be made for both sides here as this is arguably one of the tougher matchups of the Sweet 16. With that said, I’m looking at the under here. Arizona’s been known for the offensive prowess, but it’ll be in Houston’s best interests to not let this game get out of hand from that standpoint. I think this ends up being a first to 70 kind of game if we even get that high, so give me the under here.