Princeton vs. Creighton Predictions, Odds & Picks: Is The Tigers’ Cinderella Run Over?

The NCAA Tournament’sfirst-ever matchup between a No. 15 seed and No. 6 seed pits the PrincetonTigers against the Creighton Bluejays. Read on for our Princeton vs. Creighton college basketball picks based on the top NCAAB odds.

Princeton (23-8, 10-4 Ivy) is the only one of the South region’sremaining four teams that has ever been to a Final Four (the Tigers last madeit in 1965). The Tigers became the third Ivy League school since 1975 to makethe Sweet 16, joining Penn (1978, 1979) and Cornell (2010).  

Creighton (23-12, 14-6 Big East) is one of three Big East teams(Xavier and UConn are the others) to make the Sweet 16. The Bluejays are 14-4since starting the season 9-8 and are one of five teams remaining (MichiganState, UConn, Alabama, and Houston) that won their first two NCAA Tournamentgames by at least nine points each.

Hereis our best Princeton vs. Creighton prediction (odds via Caesars; pickconfidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).

Princeton vs. Creighton odds

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Princeton is the fourth No. 15 seed to make the Sweet 16,joining Florida Gulf Coast (2013), Oral Roberts (2021), and Saint Peter’s(2022). The interesting commonality between all four teams is that none was thetop seed in its own conference tournament.

However, the Tigers are stillplaying in the NCAA Tournament as a result of two masterful game plans, daringthe right players on Arizona to beat them offensively and making a Missouriteam that wanted to get up-and-down play completely at their half-court pace.The problem with facing Creighton is that it does not have the same exploitableflaws as Arizona and is comfortable playing any style of game, unlike Missouri.

Creighton was the Big East’s best team in terms of adjusteddefensive efficiency, in large part because it controlled the defensive glass(23.2% offensive-rebounding rate allowed was tops in league play), held itsopponents to the league’s lowest free-throw rate, and allowed just 44.5% from2-point range thanks to center Ryan Kalkbrenner’s elite rim protection. TheBluejays also do an excellent job of running teams off the 3-point line (topsin the Big East in 3-point rate allowed), and we would not expect the Tigers tohave much of a chance in this game if they shoot 4-for-25 from 3-point range asthey did against Arizona.

This is a three-star play, as all five Creighton starters averagein double figures, which makes it a difficult team to game plan for. Inaddition, the Bluejays were 8-5 ATS in non-conference games this year and havecovered each of their previous four NCAA Tournament games.

Checkout our best March Madnessodds and Wooden Awardodds.

Princeton vs. Creighton bestodds

Caesars (-110)

Wewould not feel as comfortable laying double-digits with Creighton, so the onlylogical choice of sportsbooks for us was between Caesars and FanDuel.Unfortunately, it seems the only way FanDuel will offer more affordable juice(in the -110 range) is if it raises its spread to -10 or higher, but we wouldprefer to cash our bet with a 10-point Creighton win and not need at least an11-point victory to do so.

Other sportsbooks like BetRivers had been as low as-9.5 earlier in the week, but it was charging -114 in juice, so waiting forCaesars to lower from -10 was bettors’ best bang for their buck.

Princeton vs. Creighton oddsanalysis

Creighton opened as consensus a -10 favorite, but any line movement has gone toward the underdogs since then. Thebetting splits justify that line movement, as early wagers are nearly 3/1 infavor of the Tigers.

The consensus opening total of 140.5 did notlast long. FanDuel is the only remaining sportsbook offering that number, whileall other competing sportsbooks have lowered it to 140. Fifty-four percent of allwagers have backed the Over.

Princeton vs. Creighton game info

Date: Friday, March 24, 9:00 p.m. ET
TV: TBS
Location: KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, KY

Princeton-Creighton pick made3/23/2023 at 6:12 a.m. ET.

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