NCAA Tournament Free Friday Best Bets – Sports Betting

March 20, 2026

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Akron vs Texas Tech -7.5 O/U 155.5

This is a simple handicap to me in Tampa Florida. Texas Tech lost their best player in JT Toppin earlier this year. It doesn’t always affect them when they are hitting their threes, but Akron has a pretty good three point shot themselves ranking 14th in the nation at 38.5%.
Since losing JT Toppin, the Red Raiders have struggled to rebound the ball losing to teams like Arizona State, TCU, and an injured BYU team.
I think that we see a lot of points this game, but I also think that Akron has a shot to not only cover this spread, they can win it outright with the 8th best effective FG%. Take the Zips against an Injured Texas Tech team.

Akron +7.5 – 2.5 stars

This should be a fun game San Diego California. This is a long way to travel for Villanova all the way from the East coast to play the pride of the Mountain West.
The Wildcats have been a decent team under new coach Kevin Willard, but they are in an easier big east this year with no wins against any team ranked 51 or higher on Kenpom.
The Wildcats have injury issues with forward Matt Hodge with a torn ACL that greatly affected their game in a loss in their conference tournament against Georgetown.
Villanova struggle to get to the free throw line ranking 277th in free throw attempts and 290th in free throw percentage.
The Cats also do not defend well ranking 177th in opponent effective FG%
The number 30th ranked Aggies have a great offense ranking 28th in efficiency and a solid defense ranking 25th. They will win the rebounding advantage with Nova’s injury to Hodge. Take the Aggies.

Utah State -2 – 2.5 stars

This isn’t hard for me. Purdue has been a bit of a strange team without the big front court. Yes, their number look good with all of their experience, but this team also struggled to beat Memphis and Oakland earlier this year by 10 points.
Until the big 10 tournament, the Boilermakers have lost four out of their last six big 10 games. When they beat Michigan in the big 10 tournament, I feel that was a lot more about Michigan truly not caring to win this two years in a row.
Queens isn’t a good team, and they play terrible defense ranking 322nd in the league in defensive efficiency, but this team does have a solid offense ranking 15th in effective FG%. I think that if they get into some serious trouble, they can potentially back door Purdue who may have their scrubs in.
I also think that this is just more of a fade of a team that won their conference tournament laying a giant number.

Queens +25.5 – 2 stars

This is a fun game being that it is in San Diego and Cal Baptist is only around 100 miles away.
I seriously hope that the whole school shows up for this game to root for the Lancers.
I myself was pretty shocked to see Cal Baptist take out Utah valley in a slug of a game, but here we are.
This Cal Baptist team, even though close to home, has no chance in scoring against Kansas who ranks 10th in defensive efficiency.
The Lancers rank 302nd in offensive efficiency. They may not score 55 points.
Kansas doesn’t have a great offense this year when Peterson sits and that is why the Wildcats only rank 57th themselves.
The Jayhawks have went under a lot this year at 66% 11-22, as well as Cal Baptist at 12-21 to the under at 64%. Massive numbers.
Lastly, the Jayhawks perform poorly away from home ranking 348th in road/home splits on Haslametrics. I like the under a lot here.

Under 137.5 – 2.5 stars