{"id":212260,"date":"2026-03-20T01:13:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/212260\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T01:13:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:13:25","slug":"march-madness-2026-round-of-64-pick-odds-best-bet-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/212260\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness 2026 Round of 64 pick, odds, best bet Thursday"},"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

Another year, another kick at the can for Kelvin Sampson and the Houston Cougars<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No. 2 Houston will run it back again after falling in the national championship to Florida last year, starting with a first-round matchup against No. 15 Idaho as 23.5-point favorites.<\/p>\n

The Cougars capped off a 28-6 campaign, but finished in Arizona\u2019s shadow in both the Big 12 standings and title game, falling to the Wildcats last week, 79-74.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Laying 23.5 is a big swallow; Action Network\u2019s public betting reports reflect only 13 percent of spread bettors are taking the leap.<\/p>\n

Sampson dominates early tournament games like this though: he\u2019s 13-0 straight-up as NCAA Tournament favorite<\/a> of eight-plus points and is reliable against the spread (ATS) at 11-7 in the first and second rounds, respectively.<\/p>\n

Idaho vs. Houston odds, prediction<\/p>\n

The Vandals look dangerous at first glance.<\/p>\n

They toss up lots of 3 and score 78.7 points per game. They\u2019re too reliant on 3-point shooting, though, hitting 981 attempts this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Idaho also doesn\u2019t generate easy points; they only hit 15.6 free throws per game and are poor at offensive rebounding, grabbing 6.7 per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"HoustonHouston Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson. William Purnell-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s layer that against a Cougars defense that finished top five in both defensive efficiency and turnovers forced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019re one of the college game\u2019s best possession teams, only turning the ball over 8.5 times per game while crawling up and down the hardwood. <\/p>\n

The Cougars ranked 352nd in tempo and even though that can scare off bettors laying a spread like this one, slow pace doesn\u2019t hurt blowouts when one team can\u2019t score consistently<\/p>\n

Idaho doesn\u2019t only struggle to create an efficient half-court offense; they also don\u2019t run, get to the line or crash the glass.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s in addition to the fact that Houston has yielded only 62.9 points per game, the second-fewest in the nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The conference mismatch here is also gargantuan. Big Sky Conference representatives have gone 3-14-1 ATS in their last 18 NCAA Tournament games<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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

Yes, Idaho has won five straight, but teams there are used to faster paces and more offensive liberty, whereas Houston plays a tough half-court grind and physical defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With all the recent deep runs that the Cougars have made, the Vandals haven\u2019t cracked the tournament since 1990 and are just five years removed from a 1-21 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a massacre waiting to happen.<\/p>\n

THE PLAY: Houston -23.5 (-110, bet365<\/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":212261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5075,2692,22066,56,2742,58,57,48876,154,5390,5958],"class_list":["post-212260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-betting","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-houston","tag-houston-cougars","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-march-madness","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting","tag-sports-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}