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Just eight teams remain in the 2025 NCAAB Men’s Basketball Tournament, as the first set of games will tip off in under an hour. #3 Texas Tech takes on #1 Florida, and #2 Alabama will battle #1 Duke tonight, while #2 Tennessee will face off against #1 Houston, and #2 Michigan State will go head to head with #1 Auburn tomorrow. Although March Madness hasn’t had Cinderella stories or upsets, the Elite 8 features eight teams within the top-9 rankings of KenPom.
Without further ado, let’s dive into our Elite 8 picks for Sunday’s slate, as the Vols, Cougars, Spartans and Tigers aim to secure a spot in the Final Four in San Antonio, Texas next Saturday.
Sunday’s games begin with the finale in the Midwest region, as the Tennessee Volunteers will try to upset the Houston Cougars. The Vols have made it to the Elite 8 unscathed, as Rick Barnes’ team won each of their first three games by 11+ points, posting an average win margin of 13.0 PPG. They’ve looked like a well-oiled machine and just took town the #3 Kentucky Wildcats, who beat them twice in the regular season. Tennessee has been led by senior guard Chaz Lanier, who averages 22.0 PPG in the tournament but fellow senior guard Zakai Zeigler is pivotal to their success and is coming off a double-double against Kentucky (18 points and 10 assists). Both guards will need to play their best if they want to take down a Houston team that’s lost once in regulation this season.
Like Tennessee, Houston was rolling through March Madness, but they survived a scare against #4 Purdue in the Sweet 16. Although the Cougars led for most of the game against the Boilermakers, Purdue tied the game with 35 seconds left. Then, head coach Kelvin Sampson drew up an out-of-bounds play with 2 seconds on the clock, and Houston escaped with a 2-point victory. They are led by senior guard L.J. Cryer, who had 30 points against #8 Gonzaga in the Round of 32 before struggling against Purdue. However, that’s what makes Houston so great, as they have four players that average 10+ PPG and can beat you from multiple angles.
This contest will be a low-scoring, gritty affair, as these two teams rank #1 and #8 in points allowed per game. Therefore, there should be plenty of rebounding opportunities, and Houston’s J’Wan Roberts should be in for a big game. The senior forward recorded 12 rebounds against Purdue and 8 against Gonzaga and averages 6.4 REB this season. Therefore, I predict he will have a big game on the glass and record 7+ rebounds.
The second game tomorrow features the #2 Michigan State Spartans taking on the #1 overall seed, the Auburn Tigers. Neither of these two teams appeared in their conference tournament finals, but they’re both notorious for being second-half teams and have shown that during March Madness. Michigan State has trailed in two of their three tournament games at the half and only led #15 Bryant by 5 points, but that hasn’t stopped them from pulling out wins. Tom Izzo’s team doesn’t have a player averaging more than 13 points per game, but they have seven guys that score between 7.0 and 12.8 PPG. They outlasted #6 Ole Miss in the Sweet 16, but this Auburn team is a different animal.
If you asked most college basketball experts in February which team would cut the nets at the end of March Madness, most of them likely would’ve pointed to Auburn. However, Bruce Pearl’s team dropped three of their last four games before the tournament and had doubts entering March Madness. At times, they’ve looked out of sorts, which was on full display when #5 Michigan led 48-39 with just over 11 minutes to go in Friday’s Sweet 16 matchup. However, Auburn went on a 31-6 run to take a 14-point lead with just under two minutes remaining. When this team gets going, there aren’t many teams in the country that can slow them down.
The key for Michigan State in this game will be limiting any scoring runs that Auburn will go on. If they want to do that, they’ll need to control the glass. Luckily, they rank 15th in the country in rebounds per game. Their big men pull in plenty of rebounds, but they’ll need their guards in this one, and I expect Coen Carr to step up in a big way tomorrow. The sophomore forward is averaging 13.7 PPG and 6.0 REB through three tournament games, and he should hit or surpass these marks against Auburn. Therefore, I’ll back Carr to record 18+ points + rebounds against Auburn.
Luke Lindholm is an avid basketball, baseball, football, hockey and soccer fan who specializes in writing promotional content for multiple sportsbooks and prediction-based articles across a variety of sports. His work has been featured on prominent websites including Sports Illustrated, Pickswise, Men’s Journal, TheStreet, Athlon Sports and more. He started as a college football handicapper for Pickswise in 2016 and is a current member of the Pickswise NFL handicapping team.