Posted at 1:45 PM EST. Odds subject to change.

Pinnacle +4 -108  BET365 +4 -110 Sportsinteraction +4 -110 888Sport +4 -110

T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV - West Region - Sweet 16

Streaming: CBS

Arkansas +4 over UConn

7:15 PM EST. The SEC is not just a football meat grinder anymore; it just might be the best hoops conference in the nation, too. Look around as we kick off the second weekend of March Madness. Alabama, Tennessee, and these Razorbacks of Arkansas still stand tall. The Hogs don’t sport as many wins as UConn, but they played a much tougher non-conference schedule (75-to-212), and played in the stronger of the two conferences during league play. Yes, the Big East still has the Huskies, Bluejays and Musketeers here, but we would put up those three teams from the SEC mentioned above up against that lot 10 times out of 10. Arkansas upset Illinois and Kansas to get to the Sweet 16, but that is not going to be enough for head coach Eric Musselman and the Hogs, who have made two straight Elite Eights. There is only one goal in mind for Arkansas—the Final Four.

The Dan Hurley era is in year five and the return to form for UConn basketball has washed away the sins of the last decade or so, as the Huskies are now back to being regarded as the college hoops royalty they were in the 1990/2000s under Jim Calhoun in the old Big East before it’s collapse and eventual rising from the ashes and return to Power conference form. The 2022-23 Huskies went 27-8, and finished the season ranked #10 in the AP Top-25 poll. That was enough to secure UConn a #4 seed in the NCAAs. From that #4 hole the Huskies have wiped the floor with Rick Pitino’s Iona side (87-63, as 9-point chalk) and #19 St. Mary’s (70-55, as a 3½-point favorite). The Huskies are absolutely obliterating the numbers the oddsmakers have asked them to cover in this tournament. Recency bias, mixed with a blue blood program in the Sweet 16 puts us in a position to take back inflated points with a team that is battle tested.

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