{"id":169553,"date":"2026-03-20T19:52:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/169553\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T19:52:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:52:33","slug":"march-madness-2026-round-of-64-pick-odds-best-bet-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/169553\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness 2026 Round of 64 pick, odds, best bet Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\tGambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our links. Read our editorial standards<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n

It feels like only yesterday Purdue was the No. 1 team in the AP\u2019s preseason rankings.<\/p>\n

Here in March, they kick off the Round of 64<\/a> as the West\u2019s No. 2 seed with plenty to prove in a tournament that is widely believed to be Arizona, Duke or Michigan\u2019s to lose.<\/p>\n

That quest begins against No. 15 Queens University of Charlotte, N.C. \u2014 a program that cracked the NCAA Tournament<\/a> in its inaugural season with Division I status.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s about as much of a success story as the Royals could have asked for this year, entering Friday\u2019s game as 25.5-point underdogs.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a bet that 63 percent of BetMGM bettors are taking at the time of this writing.<\/p>\n

Queens is a fun offense that is one of the tournament\u2019s extreme, high-variance teams. They chuck a heavy volume of 3s, firing 28-plus from beyond the arc per game while rostering six players averaging in the double figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Queens vs. Purdue prediction, odds<\/p>\n

The Boilermakers stack up against them as one of the nation\u2019s most formidable offensive teams, capping their campaign as KenPom\u2019s No. 2 overall offense and ranking within the top 25 in 2-point and 3-point shooting rate, offensive rebounds, and turnover rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Purdue\u2019s biggest edge over Queens is in the paint.<\/p>\n

Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff just averaged 32.6 points and 16.5 rebounds collectively in the Big Ten Tournament. I\u2019m hard-pressed to name anyone on this Queens roster who can match either of these guys\u2019 production down low.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AQueens University is a massive underdog on Friday. Jeff Le-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the defensive breakdowns against high-major teams.<\/p>\n

Queens allowed 94 points to both Villanova and Virginia, respectively. That pertains to why they are the worst team in the tournament in KenPom\u2019s Defensive Rating, ranking 319th overall.<\/p>\n

Purdue doesn\u2019t get to the line much, but the Royals also rank in the bottom 10 nationally in fouls, committing 19.9 per game while offering their opponents 23.7 free-throw attempts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Betting on College Basketball? <\/p>\n

Queens only path to staying in this is if its 3-point volume converts. If they go cold, however, Purdue can dominate them in rebounding, with a top-25 rank in Torvik\u2019s defensive rebounding ratings. Purdue really just needs average perimeter defense, and we could see the margin balloon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was only three years ago that Purdue was upset by Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round as a No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, they fell to Connecticut in the national championship game, so experience and motivation make these points comfortable to lay.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

THE PLAY: Purdue -25.5 (-110, BetMGM<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Why Trust New York Post Betting<\/p>\n

Sean Treppedi handicaps the NFL, NHL, MLB and college football for the New York Post. He primarily focuses on picks that reflect market value while tracking trends to mitigate risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[6112,3361,69463,68679,63552,9,24,63,59782,122,124,123,319,6115,7454],"class_list":["post-169553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-betting","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-march-madness-2026","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-purdue-boilermakers","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting","tag-sports-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}