Alabama vs BYU Prediction 3/27/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The BYU Cougars and the Alabama Crimson Tide meet Thursday in NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 college basketball action from Prudential Center. Here’s an Alabama vs BYU prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Alabama vs BYU pick.

BYU Cougars Betting Preview

The Cougars have really only had one instance of a spotty run this year. Otherwise it’s been a great run. BYU kicked off their year on a 10-2 stretch, then lost to Houston, Texas Tech, TCU and Utah over the next five outings. After wins over Colorado, Cincinnati, Baylor and UCF, the Cougars felt o Arizona and Cincinnati. BYU would finish off the regular season with wins over West Virginia, Kansas State, Kansas, Arizona, Arizona State, West Virginia, Iowa State and Utah, then beat Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament. The Cougars would fall to Houston in the next round, then took out VCU in the First Round of the national tourney. After a Second Round  win over Wisconsin, BYU now stands at 26-9 overall this year.

In the Wisconsin matchup over the weekend, the Cougars kicked off the first half with a 47-36 halftime edge. BYU had to hang on after a 53-44 deficit from there however, resulting in a 91-89 win in the end. Leading the team during the victory was Richie Saunders with 25 points and seven rebounds. Trevin Knell added 14 points with two assists, while Egor Demin had 11 points with eight boards and eight assists. Keba Keita chipped in 10 points as well.

Alabama Crimson Tide Betting Preview

Over on the Alabama side, they similarly had one rough run going back in February and March, but outside of that they’ve been a strong team in the 2024-25 season so far. The Tide managed a 14-3 start this year with losses to only Purdue, Oregon and Ole Miss. After a nice seven-game win streak in January/February, the Tide fell to Auburn, Missouri, Tennessee and Florida over the next six games (beating Kentucky and Mississippi State otherwise). After two more wins over Auburn and Kentucky, then a loss to Florida in the conference tournament, Alabama took out Robert Morris in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Tide would improve to 27-8 overall with a Second Round win over Saint Mary’s on Sunday.

Matched up against Saint Mary’s, the Tide didn’t have too many issues. Alabama was up 42-29 by the break, then hit a 38-37 second half for the win 80-66 in the end. The Tide’s leading scorer was Chris Youngblood with 13 points, while Clifford Omoruyi doubled up on 10 points with 11 rebounds. Mark Sears (three assists), Grant Nelson (eight rebounds) and Aden Holloway (bench) each chipped in 12 points as well.

Alabama vs BYU Prediction

I’m going to stick with BYU. This should be a pretty great matchup—and a very intriguing game—regardless. The Cougars had a hot start and a slower second half against a great Wisconsin team in their last outing, but ended up with 49.2 percent shooting, 46.2 percent (12-of-26) from 3-point range and a stellar 15-of-16 (93.8 percent) from the line alongside a 41-32 rebounding edge. The only real blemish for BYU was the 11 turnovers for 12 Badgers points. The Cougars have scored a combined 171 points in their two tournament games, but they’ve also given up 160 on the other side.

As for Alabama, they were able to stay on top of a scrappy Saint Mary’s team pretty well, shooting 51.8 percent from the field with a 41-36 rebounding advantage. The Tide also had 11 turnovers, but they didn’t make a ton of difference in the final score. Alabama has 170 combined points in their first two games of the tournament, so this one should be a high-scoring, competitive game if both teams show up.