Houston vs. Longwood: 2024 NCAA Tournament Odds & Picks
Now that the 2024 NCAA Tournament brackets have been announced, it’s time to make your sports betting picks to increase the excitement of March Madness. Let's take a look at the early odds and picks for the 2024 NCAA Tournament game: Houston vs. Longwood. And make sure to check out our 2024 NCAA Tournament Bracket Optimizer to take down your pools!
- 2024 NCAA Tournament Bracket & Betting Guide
- Expert 2024 NCAA Tournament Brackets
- Expert NCAA Tournament Picks
2024 NCAA Tournament Odds & Picks: Houston vs. Longwood
Houston 2024 NCAA Tournament Preview
In their first season in the Big 12, the college basketball community questioned whether Houston could keep up their reputation as an elite team moving over from the American. That question was quickly put to bed after starting the season 13-0 and winning the Big 12 regular season title. LJ Cryer stepped right in, transferring from Baylor. Jamal Shead was a delight to watch on both ends of the floor, and Houston’s defense was truly suffocating. To put into context how insane this Houston defense was, they owned a block and steal rate of around 16%. Will Warren noted that their 32% combined rate is the highest since the 2012-13 Syracuse (33%) Final Four squad. Yea, the Cougars are vicious.
Offensively, Houston ain’t too shabby, either - ranking in the top 10 in both turnover rate and offensive rebound percentage. So even if the shots aren’t falling, what Houston excels at is pure opportunity. Averaging under 50% from inside the arc and ranking outside the top 200 in the league, they still own a top-25 offensive efficiency ranking. It is quite difficult to stop this team or to get anything by them. They rank first overall in field goal rate, which is generally a good strategy for success in basketball games. They own a bottom-300 pace and defensively rank first in limiting transition scoring, second-chance points, and mid-range shooting.
Houston owns three of the top 10 defensive players in the country, per Defensive Bayesian Performance Rating. The metrics love them, and I imagine Houston will be one of the three favorites to get down the nets in early April. Still, there’s no perfect team. Evan Miya notes that Houston excels against heavily inferior opponents, boosting a lot of their metrics and making their predictive analytics favor them. Compared to other top-ranked opponents, Houston doesn’t perform up to expectations. The Cougars rarely led on the road against Kansas and were down by 20 at one point. In Waco, they allowed Baylor to come back from a 17-point lead. Their away-from-home metrics ranked outside the top 350. This team was night and day home and away from the Fertitta Center. Usually, I wouldn’t put much weight into that, but we saw this last year. Houston collapsed against Miami in the last tournament and it wouldn’t shock me if the same happened this time around. Hopes are high to get to Phoenix and it will be interesting to see which Houston team shows up.
Longwood 2024 NCAA Tournament Preview
As one of the more surprising conference tournament outcomes, Longwood earned their auto-bid out of the Big South after upsetting Winthrop, High Point, and UNC Asheville in consecutive games. In terms of momentum, the Lancers are playing their best ball right now, ranking in the top 25 in Haslametrics consistency metrics. Wayln Napper leads Longwood in scoring and plays solid defense, but the support is inconsistent.
With a non-conference strength of schedule ranking outside the top 340 and a 6-10 conference record, this team hasn’t shown much promise outside of their four most recent games. While it’s the perfect time of year to be playing your best ball, don’t fall to recency bias. While Griff Aldrich’s squad does rep solid offensive rebounding and free throw rate numbers. The problem is that their effective field goal percentage is under 50%, ranked outside the top 225. They aren’t the most analytically friendly team either, with a high number of mid-range shots attempted and a low number of threes, so don’t expect many scoring runs, especially with a slower-than-average pace. Despite recent victories, their NET ranking and lack of significant wins suggest limited potential for an upset.
2024 NCAA Tournament Predictions: Houston vs. Longwood
The Houston Cougars were one of the most consistent defenses this year. The Cougars held opponents to 30% from three and 43.4% from inside the arc. They also added 24.7% of turnovers. That's ideal for the Cougars, who are going up against the Longwood Lancers from the Big South. Longwood turned the ball over 18.1% of the time and shot only 48.6% from inside the arc. Ultimately, the Lancers were great on the glass in the Big South. Against Houston, the success might be a little harder to come by on the glass. Houston will bounce back after the loss to Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship.
2024 NCAA Tournament Picks: Houston vs. Longwood
Pick: Houston -22 (-110 on DraftKings)
Check out all of our 2024 NCAA Tournament Bracket & Betting Coverage >>
2024 NCAA Tournament Sports Betting Picks
Now that the 2024 NCAA Tournament brackets have been announced, it’s time to make your sports betting picks to increase the excitement of March Madness. Let's take a look at the early odds and picks for the 2024 NCAA Tournament
EAST REGION
- UCONN v Stetson (1v16)
- Iowa St. v South Dakota St. (2v15)
- Illinois v Morehead St. (3v14)
- Auburn v Yale (4v13)
- San Diego St. v UAB (5v12)
- BYU v Duquesne (6v11)
- Washington St. v Drake (7v10)
- Florida Atlantic v Northwestern (8v9)
MIDWEST REGION
- Montana St/Grambling St PLAY IN
- Virginia/Colorado St. PLAY IN
- Tennessee vs. Saint Peter’s (2v15)
- Creighton vs. Akron (3v14)
- Kansas vs. Samford (4v13)
- Gonzaga vs. McNeese (5v12)
- South Carolina vs. Oregon (6v11)
- Utah St. vs. TCU (8v9)
SOUTH REGION
- Boise St./Colorado PLAY IN
- Houston vs. Longwood (1v16)
- Marquette vs. Western Kentucky (2v15)
- Kentucky vs. Oakland (3v14)
- Duke vs. Vermont (4v13)
- Wisconsin vs. James Madison (5v12)
- Texas Tech vs. NC State (6v11)
- Nebraska vs. Texas A&M (8v9)
WEST REGION
- Howard/Wagner PLAY IN
- Arizona vs. Long Beach St. (2v15)
- Baylor vs. Colgate (3v14)
- Alabama vs. Charleston (4v13)
- Saint Mary’s vs. Grand Canyon (5v12)
- Clemson vs. New Mexico (6v11)
- Dayton vs. Nevada (7v10)
- Mississippi St. vs. Michigan St. (8v9)
2024 NCAA Tournament Bracket Pool Strategy & Picks
Below we provide strategy, advice, and picks to create the optimal NCAA Tournament bracket. And be sure to use our FREE bracket optimizer to build a winning men’s NCAA tournament bracket and take down your contest!