Our free College Basketball picks are out for Sweet Sixteen 2023! Make sure you check our College Basketball picks before the action kicks off.
Look below to find our free College Basketball picks for the five best games on today’s schedule!
Thursday March 23rd
#7 Michigan State @ #3 Kansas State – 6:30PM ET
The seventh seeded Michigan State Spartans take on the third seeded Kansas State Wildcats in this Sweet Sixteen NCAA Tournament matchup. The winner of this game will advance to the Elite Eight on Saturday and move one step closer to winning the national championship.
Tony Battalio
The Michigan State Spartans had a pretty underwhelming regular season, compared to where they were expected to finish. However, they have really turned it on heading into the NCAA tournament and now they will be looking to grab their third win of the tournament and advance to the elite eight. In their opening round matchup they got the better of the USC Trojans, and then they upset the Marquette Golden Eagles in the round of 32 to reach the Sweet 16. They won their first two games of the tournament by an average of 9 1/2 points per game as they defeated USC by 10 points and Marquette by nine points. With Tom Izzo on the sideline, this is a team that is capable of potentially winning at all if they get past this tough test in the Wildcats in this one.
Kansas State showed all season long that they had a ton of potential and they held their own in a very competitive big 12 conference throughout the regular season. Now they will be looking to make their first appearance in the elite eight since the 2018 season. They won 25 games during the regular season and won the Cayman Islands Classic tournament that took place to open up the season. They should be a very competitive back-and-forth game, but in the end I look for Kansas State to get the job done and advance to the weekend.
SportsTips’ College Basketball Pick:
Kansas State (+100)
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#8 Arkansas @ #4 UConn – 7:15PM ET
The eighth seeded Arkansas Razorbacks take on the fourth seeded Connecticut Huskies in this Sweet Sixteen NCAA Tournament matchup. The winner of this game will advance to the Elite Eight on Saturday and move one step closer to winning the national championship.
Tony Battalio
The Arkansas Razorbacks will have the toughest test ahead of them when they meet the Connecticut Huskies in the Sweet 16 matchup on Thursday evening. Arkansas is one of the four teams remaining in the tournament that lost double digit games during the regular season and conference tournament play. Which certainly establishes them as an underdog in this one against Connecticut. Since arriving, Eric Musselman has turned this program around and now they will be looking for their third consecutive elite, eight appearance with a victory in this one. In their last game they upset the defending national champions, as they made Kansas the second number one seed to go home.
Connecticut comes into this game, looking to make the elite eight for the first time in nearly a decade. The good news for them is the last time they made it this far in the tournament they ended up winning the entire thing back in 2014. The unfortunate part about being the Connecticut Huskies men’s basketball program as he will always live in the shadow of your woman’s program. However, with the way that they have played this season, they have a chance to do something special if the UConn women live up to the hype as well. As they could both potentially make a deep tournament run and potentially compete for and win a national championship this year. I have them winning this game against Arkansas on advancing to the elite eight.
SportsTips’ College Basketball Pick:
UConn -3.5 (-115)
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#9 Florida Atlantic @ #4 Tennessee – 9PM ET
The ninth seeded Florida Atlantic Owls take on the fourth seeded Tennessee Volunteers in this Sweet Sixteen NCAA Tournament matchup. The winner of this game will advance to the Elite Eight on Saturday and move one step closer to winning the national championship.
Tony Battalio
Florida Atlantic has to be counting their luck in this one because they probably shouldn’t be here. Not only did it take a fiery comeback to beat the Memphis Tigers in round one, they were the benefits of one of the greatest upsets in NCAA tournament history as well. It was almost guaranteed that they were going to face off with the Purdue Boilermakers in the second round of the tournament after winning their game against Memphis, however, Fairleigh Dickinson upset Purdue and it led to Florida Atlantic to one of the easiest second round matchups they could have possibly had. As they just simply outsized Fairleigh Dickinson and they took advantage of it on the boards and cruised to a comfortable victory.
All hope was lost for the Tennessee Volunteers when they lost their leading scorer midway through the season. Some people even had them getting upset and round one by the Ragin Cajun of Louisiana Lafayette. However, they survived and would end up winning that game by three points. Their second round matchup was an even more daunting task as they met the red hot Duke Blue Devils, and absolutely dismantled them. Tennessee showed that they are not to be counted out and they could still potentially compete for a championship in this tournament. However, I think the train stops here as I think Florida Atlantic will pick up an upset and keep it rolling into the elite eight.
SportsTips’ College Basketball Pick:
FAU (+185)
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#3 Gonzaga @ #2 UCLA – 9:45PM ET
The second seeded UCLA Bruins take on the third seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs in this Sweet Sixteen NCAA Tournament matchup. The winner of this game will advance to the Elite Eight on Saturday and move one step closer to winning the national championship.
Tony Battalio
The Gonzaga Bulldogs return once again to the Sweet 16 and once again, look to make another deep run into the NCAA tournament as they still chase that elusive national championship. Drew Timme is leading the way once again for the Gonzaga Bulldogs and they will face the toughest test of the entire tournament when they play the UCLA Bruins in this one. However, Gonzaga is very battle tested and experienced after several deep runs in the tournament, and this game might be the toughest team they face the entire tournament, depending on who they will face in the elite eight if they advance.
UCLA comes into this one looking to put an end to Gonzaga’s tournament title hopes once again. They will be looking to make their second elite eight appearance in the last three years with a victory in this game on Thursday evening. This is going to be the best game of the night and potentially the best game of the entire week and weekend before heading into the final four. When the final buzzer sounds, I have to go with Drew Timme and the Gonzaga Bulldogs, as I think they will find a way to get a victory in this one and advance to the weekend.
SportsTips’ College Basketball Pick:
Gonzaga (-105)
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Friday March 24th
#5 San Diego State @ #1 Alabama – 6:30PM ET
The seventh seeded San Diego State Aztecs take on the first seeded Alabama Crimson Tide in this Sweet Sixteen NCAA Tournament matchup. The winner of this game will advance to the Elite Eight on Saturday and move one step closer to winning the national championship.
Tony Battalio
The San Diego State Aztecs come in as one of the potential favorites out of the remaining mid-majors left in the tournament. However, they perhaps face the toughest test of every one of them in the Sweet 16 as they take on the number one overall seat at Alabama Crimson Tide. They had a tough match up in their opening round game against Charleston, but ended up getting a seven point victory and then they really took Furman to the woodshed after Furman upset Virginia in the first round. So the Aztecs do come into this one with a decent amount of momentum but they will have trouble keeping up with the speed of Alabama in this one.
The Crimson Tide might be the favorite to win the entire thing at this point. Star freshman Brandon Miller has looked fantastic throughout the first two rounds of the tournament, despite all the outside noise surrounding him and the program. Alabama has yet to be tested during this tournament after blowout victories over Texas A&M, Corpus Christi and Maryland in the first couple of rounds. I’m not quite sure if they will get tested in this one either as I have the Alabama Crimson Tide picking up the victory and covering the spread over San Diego State to advance to the elite eight on Sunday evening.
SportsTips’ College Basketball Pick:
Alabama -7.5 (-110)
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#5 Miami @ #1 Houston – 7:15PM ET
The fifth seeded Miami Hurricanes take on the one seeded Houston Cougars in this Sweet Sixteen NCAA Tournament matchup. The winner of this game will advance to the Elite Eight on Saturday and move one step closer to winning the national championship.
Tony Battalio
The Miami Hurricanes had a fantastic start to the regular season. However, towards the end of the year and then the conference tournament, they started to regress a little bit. They have picked it back up during the NCAA tournament and now find themselves with an opportunity to advance to the elite eight. Isaiah Wong leads the way for the Hurricanes, and with Jim Larranaga on the bench. It is very possible that Miami could get themselves into the final four this season. They will now face the toughest test of the tournament as they go up against the Houston Cougars who were ranked number one for the majority of the season.
Houston comes into this game looking to get to the elite eight after being upset several times throughout the year and having several close losses to stellar teams. A victory in this game would give them their third consecutive elite eight appearance after back-to-back appearances in 2021 and 2022. Technically you could consider it fourth straight elite eight appearances because the tournament was not held in 2020 and they advanced to the elite eight in 2019 as well. If they can contain Wong, they will get a comfortable victory in this game. However, I expect this one to be close and I’m taking Miami to cover the spread.
SportsTips’ College Basketball Pick:
Miami +7.5 (-110)
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#15 Princeton @ #6 Creighton – 9PM ET
The fifteenth seeded Princeton Tigers take on the sixth seeded Creighton Bluejays in this Sweet Sixteen NCAA Tournament matchup. The winner of this game will advance to the Elite Eight on Saturday and move one step closer to winning the national championship.
Tony Battalio
The Princeton Tigers are shocking the world at the moment and now find themselves one more win away from advancing to the elite eight. In the first round they upset second seeded Arizona to advance to the second round, and then they once again shocked Missouri to advance to the Sweet 16. However, they will have their hands full with the Creighton Bluejays, and this one in my opinion but if they continue to play the way they have, they do have a shot to pull off a miraculous third upset and advance to the elite eight. Princeton has been playing solid team basketball and I look for that to continue in this one as well.
A lot of people of the Creighton Bluejays pegged as potential national championship winners this season. Talk about some teams being under seated and Creighton as one of those teams because they are arguably a top four seed in my opinion. They just happen to catch. Some bad breaks throughout the regular season and played in a very competitive Big East conference this year. They defeated a solid NC State team and then beat Baylor in the second round, and they won both of those games by nine points. I think they get the win in this one, but I’m taking the Princeton Tigers to cover the spread.
SportsTips’ College Basketball Pick:
Princeton +9.5 (-105)
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#3 Xavier @ #2 Texas – 9:45PM ET
The second seeded Xavier Musketeers take on the third seeded Texas Longhorns in this Sweet Sixteen NCAA Tournament matchup. The winner of this game will advance to the Elite Eight on Saturday and move one step closer to winning the national championship.
Tony Battalio
Xavier is a solid team that is very capable of beating the Texas Longhorns and putting themselves into the elite eight. With a victory they could potentially become the second or third Big East conference team to make it to the elite aid after Connecticut last night, and if Creighton wins here on Friday as well. However, it is fair to say that Xavier has a much tougher task ahead of them than the Creighton Bluejays, because they will be taking on the Texas Longhorns in this matchup. They are a solid team that scores a lot of points, and they have a legitimate shot to pull off the upset and take out many people’s national championship favorites.
The Texas Longhorns have looked solid all season long and they have a ton of double digit victories to their name this season. They will be looking to grab another one and put themselves into the elite eight with a victory over Xavier in this game on Friday night. A lot of people counted them out when they fired head coach Chris Beard in the middle of the season. However, this team came together and got themselves a big 12 tournament championship and now have themselves positioned to make a deep tournament run. Unfortunately for Texas, I think it ends here in this game as I have the Xavier Musketeers, moving onto the elite eight.
SportsTips’ College Basketball Pick:
Xavier (+160)
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*Odds and spreads correct at time of publication, courtesy of BetMGM.
