2025 College Basketball odds: Best bets for Houston-Baylor, Duke-North Carolina
March 8, 2025
4,809
Sam Panayotovich
FOX Sports Betting Analyst
Who’s ready to bet basketball all day Saturday?
All right, maybe not all day, but conference tournament games start bright and early, we’ll see a champion crowned in the Ohio Valley, and it’s the last full weekend of regular-season play in a handful of leagues.
Sign me up for the Madness.
Here’s the “Saturday Trifecta” for March 8.
’25 CBK Plays (3-6, -3.7 units)
St. John’s @ Marquette (-2, O/U 141.5)
This one should be a doozy on FOX. Johnnies’ stock hasn’t been this high in decades and, naturally, I’m looking to bet against the hype and against Rick Pitino. Full disclosure: I’ll be a nervous wreck if he comes out in the Tony Montana white suit. Marquette is exceptional at protecting the basketball, which is how you beat St. John’s — don’t turn over that precious pumpkin. It also doesn’t hurt that the Golden Eagles are 14-2 at home this season.
PICK: Marquette (-2) to win by more than 2 points
Houston (-4.5, O/U 131.5) @ Baylor
DraftKings opened Houston at -7.5 late Friday afternoon — just an awful opener by the way — and it got decked immediately. The market is currently sitting Cougars -4.5, and I still like the home ‘dog. Baylor needs this game in the worst of ways and an outright victory would solidify a berth in the Big Dance. I’m not going to call my shot, but I do think the Bears fight down to the wire.
PICK: Baylor (+4.5) to lose by fewer than 4.5 points, or win outright
Duke (-11, O/U 158) @ North Carolina
Fading Duke isn’t exactly what people want to do these days and I understand. The Blue Devils are destroying everything in sight, and they’ve won their last seven games by an average of 32 points. That’s not a typo, either. And yet here I am deciding to take another crack at ‘em. North Carolina has quietly rattled off six straight wins and that’s a big number to give the Heels in their home finale. I expect a big game and timely shooting from senior RJ Davis.
PICK: North Carolina (+11) to lose by fewer than 11 points, or win outright
Sam Panayotovich is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and the BetMGM Network. He previously worked for WGN Radio, NBC Sports and VSiN. Follow him on Twitter @spshoot.
Get more from College BasketballFollow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
A legjobb élmény biztosítása érdekében olyan technológiákat használunk, mint a cookie-k az eszközadatok tárolására és/vagy eléréséhez. Ha beleegyezik ezekbe a technológiákba, akkor olyan adatokat dolgozhatunk fel ezen az oldalon, mint a böngészési viselkedés vagy az egyedi azonosítók. A hozzájárulás elmulasztása vagy visszavonása bizonyos funkciókat és funkciókat hátrányosan érinthet.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
