March Madness Parlay Picks: Targeting Kentucky, BYU to Survive the Round of 64 on Thursday
The opening round of March Madness will kick off on Thursday afternoon, and the slate is packed with exciting games. Will BYU, Kentucky, and Texas Tech survive upset bids and advance to the Round of 32? Oddschecker analyst Peter Alexis brings us his best March Madness Parlay for Thursday's Round of 64 games.
Peter Alexis - March 21, 2024, 9:30 AM EDT
7 minMarch Madness Parlay Picks: Targeting Kentucky, BYU to Survive the Round of 64 on Thursday
The First Four is in the books, and the full field of 64 is set and ready to tip off on Thursday afternoon. Even if your bracket gets busted early on, it's always exciting to craft an old-fashioned moneyline parlay of teams to survive and advance.
The key to avoiding the upsets is to stay away from heavily public teams that are more likely to go down in the chaos of the opening days. We're going to cook up a fade public parlay for each day of the Madness, and it begins with on Thursday with a trio of favorites.
March Madness Parlay Picks for Round of 64
Duquesne vs. BYU Prediction
Let’s start this off with the BYU Cougars, who will host the Duquesne Dukes early on Thursday afternoon. BYU is one of the more underrated teams in this tournament, and was dropped from a 5-seed due to a religious exemption to avoid playing on Sundays. Keep that in mind when evaluating them, they have an explosive offense and are realistically rated at the top of 5-seed line.
The Cougars are taking on a Duquesne team who managed to fight their way into the Tournament. They may have some added motivation with their coach retiring, but they did not expect to make it this far, and had a favorable draw with several top seeds going down early in the A-10 Tournament. Analytically, they are the worst 11-seed by far, and are closer to a middle of the pack 13-seed as compared with the rest of the field. Their NET ranking is below both Samford and Yale, but they managed to grab an 11th seed with a late ending result on Sunday afternoon in the A-10 Final.
At the end of the day, BYU can feast on this team that doesn't truly belong in this spot. Both teams are erroneously rated on the seed line in different directions, and this could easily be a 4 vs. 13 matchup in another setup. If the Cougars are shooting sharp from 3-point land, this game won't be close. The line already moved from 6.5 to 9.5 since the open, despite 65% of the public backing the feel-good story of the Dukes. BYU rolls here.
Oakland vs. Kentucky Prediction
The Kentucky Wildcats arrive to the tournament as a 3-seed, and have been playing hot basketball over the last month. They won several huge road games down the stretch in the SEC including wins at Mississippi State and Auburn, and have cemented their place in the field as arguably the most talented teams in the country.
They play fast ball, they play efficiently, and they don't play defense. Two of those things are great, and one needs to be worked on if they have plans of a deep run. But we only need them to win this first one. The Wildcats are healthy 13-point favorites, and despite being a bit public, they can outlast any team even on an off shooting night.
Oakland plays a slow, drawn out game, and they won't be able to keep up with the Wildcats on Thursday evening. There are teams in the tournament who are toast if they are down double digits, but a group stacked with lottery picks like Kentucky is never out of it, and they've proven that with a plethora of comebacks this year. Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham will carry the load with Antonio Reeves, and they can score at will when they have to. We are taking them in lieu of teams like Creighton or Illinois, who could be on more of an upset alert as far as the 3-seeds go.
NC State vs. Texas Tech Prediction
The final game in this three-teamer should be the most exciting. The NC State Wolfpack are one of the hottest teams in college basketball, and everyone's backing them to keep the magic going. They just took down UNC in a decisive ACC Tournament Championship game to earn an automatic bid to March Madness. They won five games in five days, something that's never been done before, and should certainly be respected.
However, the magic always runs out sooner or later. They may be playing great ball, but they are going against a talented Red Raider squad who has the ability to outplay them in most facets. They just blew BYU away in the Big 12 Tournament last week, and had just won four games in a row of their own before hitting the Houston buzzsaw. 73% of bets are backing the Wolfpack to cover the spread and potentially win outright, but the line hasn't budged off of 5 points. The public may be gobbling up NC State, but the fatigue will take a toll on them, and we're going to ride with the sharp side featuring over 40% of the handle on the Red Raiders despite just 1/4 of the total bets.
College Basketball Parlay Picks (+100) (Bet $100 to Collect $200)
- BYU Cougars ML
- Kentucky Wildcats ML
- Texas Tech Red Raiders ML
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