{"id":199408,"date":"2026-03-20T17:07:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199408\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T17:07:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:07:25","slug":"march-madness-2026-round-of-64-picks-odds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199408\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness 2026 Round of 64 picks, odds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\tGambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our links. Read our <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/betting-editorial-standards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">editorial standards<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee and Miami (OH) meet in a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/betting\/march-madness-odds\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Round of 64<\/a> matchup where the Vols should have a good chance to set the tone early.<\/p>\n<p>Miami, which played like it had something to prove after barely making it into the tournament, is coming off an <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/19\/sports\/miami-ohio-cruises-past-smu-in-march-madness-first-four-matchup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">emotional First Four win over SMU<\/a> on Wednesday, while Tennessee enters rested and with the kind of size and physicality that can show up right away.<\/p>\n<p>The RedHawks took down the SMU Mustangs 89-79 during that victory, riding some red-hot shooting, making 16 3-pointers, which were their most in a game since non-conference play early on this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That win was Miami\u2019s best of the year, on paper, giving their boosters fodder against those who called their 31-1 regular season record a result of their schedule, but SMU wasn\u2019t even at full strength, having been down guard B.J. Edwards.<\/p>\n<p>With a quick turnaround against a tough Tennessee defense, it\u2019s going to be tough to repeat that kind of performance from deep.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Vols come into this game with fresh legs, having last played a full week ago after falling to Vanderbilt during the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve had one of the country\u2019s stingiest defenses this season, sitting No. 8 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency at KenPom while allowing just 63.1 points per game this season.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38835739\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/tennessee-volunteers-forward-nate-ament-123988829.jpg\" alt=\"Tennessee Volunteers forward Nate Ament (10) receives a pass during a practice session.\" class=\"wp-image-38835739\"  \/>Tennessee Volunteers forward Nate Ament (10) receives a pass during a practice session ahead of the first round of the men\u2019s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena.  IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>The RedHawks will be feeling with a lot more size and physicality than they did two days ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee features the 6-foot-8 Jaylen Carey and 6-foot-10 Nate Ament inside, plus a steady stable of long wings on the perimeter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Betting on College Basketball? <\/p>\n<p>Bet on a letdown for Miami, at least early on, during Friday\u2019s contest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The play: Tennessee Volunteers -4.5 first-half spread (-115, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/article\/fanduel-sign-up-offer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FanDuel Sportsbook<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Why Trust New York Post Betting<\/p>\n<p>Dylan Svoboda is a versatile writer and analyst across many sports. He\u2019s particularly knowledgeable about the big three \u2014 MLB, the NFL and the NBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4640,8294,43655,33737,88351,123,125,124,110,5775,5776,2533],"class_list":["post-199408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-betting","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-march-madness","tag-march-madness-2026","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting","tag-sports-picks","tag-tennessee-volunteers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}