Friday promises an exciting final round of Sweet 16 March Madness bracket matchups with two No. 1 seeds and a pair of No. 2 seeds in Friday night action.
There are plenty of betting options for Friday’s Sweet 16 matchups and I’ve found three totals and three prop bets to create two parlay tickets and increase Friday’s excitement.
Join me as I dig into the March Madness odds and share my best March Madness picks, plus two free parlay tickets for Friday, March 29.
March Madness Sweet 16 Parlays
- GON/PUR o154.5 + DUKE/HOU u134 + CRE/TEN u143.5 (+595 at BetMGM)
- T. Kolek o7.5 asts + Z. Edey o2.5 asts + T. Proctor u3.5 asts (+573 at DraftKings)
Click on each pick to jump to the full analysis.
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Best Sweet 16 parlay picks
Gonzaga vs. Purdue Over 154.5
Duke vs. Houston Under 134
Creighton vs. Tennessee Under 143.5
Our first leg begins in Motown with a Midwest Region matchup between the No. 5 Gonzaga Bulldogs and the No. 1 Purdue Boilermakers.
The programs met in November, with Purdue winning handily in a low-scoring affair plagued by poor shooting and 26 miscues. That isn’t who these programs are today, and Friday's tilt should prove to be a different matchup than their previous brick-city, turnover-prone dud.
The tempo should be there for this one and we’re looking at two above average-paced teams with elite long-distance shooters fueling offenses ranked in the Top 10 on KenPom’s rankings facing defenses that aren’t quite as efficient.
Gonzaga will have to push their tempo even faster than usual to beat Purdue, and that should produce some crazy exchanges with wide-open looks in transition from downtown and Edey going to work inside. This clash should be a wild one in Detroit, ending Over the number.
Stop No. 2 on the BetMGM parlay bus is a South Region matchup between the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils and the No. 1 Houston Cougars.
Both programs rely heavily on points from turnovers, but these groups are tidy with the pill and surrender fewer than 10 points per game from opponents' miscues. Our combatants must find other ways to score the ball, which might be challenging.
The Blue Devils average nearly 80 points per game. They hit that number once in their past six and shouldn’t get anywhere near that score on Friday against KenPom’s second-ranked Houston defense, allowing the fewest points nationally.
Houston scores 74 points per night, but nearly 19 come from turnovers, and forcing 16 turnovers may not happen against a careful Duke offense. Shooting the long ball could prove tricky against the 87th-best Blue Devils' 3-point shooting defense, and two painfully slow offenses will treat us to a hard-fought contest ending Under the number.
We’ll cash this ticket with a Midwest Region matchup between the sharpshooting No. 4 Creighton Bluejays and the elite No. 2 Tennessee Volunteers defense.
Creighton relies heavily on the triple, but Tennessee defends the 3-point arc as well as anyone nationally. That will force the Bluejays to score inside, which could prove difficult against a smothering defense that allows a minuscule 26 points per night inside the paint.
The Bluejays stop unit is above average and likely good enough to slow down the faster-playing Vols. Tennessee won’t benefit from its typical 16 points from turnovers on Friday. A sometimes-inconsistent Volunteers offense will be forced to work harder to shoot and score against the longer Creighton defenders. This one ends Under the number.
Tyler Kolek Over 7.5 assists
Zach Edey Over 2.5 assists
Tyrese Proctor Under 3.5 assists
Our second ticket for Friday's Sweet 16 matchups is all about the playmakers, and DraftKings has provided some good numbers for Friday’s dime-dropping facilitators.
No. 11 NC State Wolfpack meet No. 2 Marquette Golden Eagles in a matchup with the second-highest total on Friday’s slate. This South Region encounter features two fast-paced programs that bodes well for Marquette guard Tyler Kolek to clear his 7.5 assist prop.
Kolek is coming off a strong campaign for Marquette. The senior guard averaged a career-best 7.9 dimes for a fast-paced, good-shooting Golden Eagles offense, scoring 78.6 points per night.
Marquette fuels its big scoring by turning 14.7 forced turnovers into 18.3 points. Kolek factors heavily into this — his 1.6 swipes per tilt offer the senior playmaker assist opportunities on the fast break, and those dimes helped him to create 104 points over the Golden Eagles' two tourney games.
N.C. State plays leaky defense, and Kolek will flourish in the pick-and-roll sets the Golden Eagles love to deploy. Kolek has cleared this number in four of his last five and should begin our ticket with a cover.
We’re expecting a high-scoring matchup in Detroit when Gonzaga meets Purdue. This game has the highest total on the board and will look to an underrated aspect of Purdue center Zach Edey’s game for our second leg.
Edey is the nation's top scorer and second-leading rebounder but the All-American is also an accomplished playmaker averaging 2.1 assists per game with a prop number he can clear.
Gonzaga will likely deploy the same defense everyone else tries to stop him from scoring — he’s usually double and even triple-teamed but the big fella has become more than a willing passer and has cleared 2.5 dimes in six of his last seven.
Purdue is the best 3-point shooting side in the land, and they’ll get plenty of wide-open looks on Friday to help Edey clear his assist number.
Our third leg is from the South Region. Duke guard Tyrese Proctor has been steady for the Blue Devils but his 3.5 assist number is too many for this matchup against the robust Houston defense.
We’re already anticipating a low-scoring affair in Dallas and Proctor’s assist total will suffer as a result. The sophomore guard averages 3.7 helpers for the Dukies but has cleared his prop number just twice over his previous five.
He’s up against a Houston defense surrendering 11 dimes per night, locks down shooters and Procter ending Over 3.5 assists doesn’t seem likely.
