March Madness: How the public is betting Sweet 16 of 2024 NCAA Tournament on Friday

The Sweet 16 continues on Friday, March 29, with four matchups that will send four winners onto the Elite Eight. Here, we take a look at how the public is betting on the total, spread, and moneyline of Thursday’s Sweet 16 games.

Updated odds are available at DraftKings Sportsbook.

2024 March Madness

Public betting splits for Sweet 16 on Friday

Notable spreads

The largest spread for Friday’s set of games features No. 2 Marquette entering as a 7.5-point favorite against No. 11 NC State. This is understandable considering that the Wolfpack are the only double-digit seed still standing in the tournament and will remain an underdog moving forward. What’s interesting is that 53% of the money is being pushed towards the Golden Eagles while 54% of the total bets are on State to cover. The public seem to be backing the Pack as they continue this Cinderella run through March.

No. 2 Tennessee enters its game against No. 3 Creighton as a close 3.5-point favorite and the public is leaning towards the Vols to cover with 53% of the handle and 54% of the overall bets. They’re putting their faith into UT head coach Rick Barnes, who hasn’t taken one of his teams to the Elite Eight since 2008. We’ll see if it works out for all parties.

Notable totals

The matchup between No. 1 Houston and No. 4 Duke has the lowest total at 133 and the public is all over the over with over 80% of the money and total bets being pushed in that direction. Houston is currently ranked No. 2 in defensive adjusted efficiency on KenPom and it thrives off of suffocating teams and forcing them to play in a phone booth. However, Duke has the No. 5 ranked offense in adjusted efficiency and will try to take a page out of Texas A&M playbook from last weekend by forcing the Cougars into a shootour.

Notable moneylines

We go back to the Marquette-NC State game where there’s a fascinating dichotomy.While 53% of the money on the spread is being pushed towards the Golden Eagles, 65% of the handle on the moneyline is on the Wolfpack to pull the upset. The percentages get practically flipped on the total number of bets, so you have a public that is truly split on how this contest will turn out.

Meanwhile. the public is on No. 1 Purdue taking out No. 5 Gonzaga with both the money and the number of bets leaning towards that direction. The Boilermakers were dominant in the first weekend of the tournament and it appears that the betting public is willing to trust them after last year’s first-round debacle.