Arizona vs Long Beach State Prediction, Odds & Picks for March 21 - March Madness 2024 

The No. 2 seed and No. 9 ranked Arizona Wildcats will begin their quest for a national championship against the No. 15 seed Long Beach State Beach in the first round. This Arizona versus Long Beach State matchup looks to be a foregone conclusion on paper – but March Madness is called that because anything can happen. And this game is no exception.

For the clear underdogs in Long Beach, they`ll be facing one of the best, high-octane offenses in the nation as their inaugural test in their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 12 years. Only time will tell now if they`re ready for the massive challenge ahead of them. So will this be another historic upset, or is Arizona due for a cakewalk?

Arizona vs Long Beach State: Prediction

For this game, it could be easy to call it before it even began. Long Beach State is unranked and the massive underdogs for a reason, and they`re just going up against one of the best teams in the country that`s contending for a national title.

But for numbers` sake, the prediction is simple: Arizona would light up the scoreboard early against the Beach and never look back. Their fourth-best scoring (87.9 ppg) and passing (18.6 apg) would just be too much to handle for Long Beach State`s bottom-feeding Big West level defense.

Perhaps the lone positive thing for the Beach would be them limiting the Wildcats` shooting to under 45% from the field, but they`ll be terrible at chasing their opponents away from the 3-point line. This would lead to Arizona just letting it fly from downtown with almost no opposition, so look for Caleb Love, Pelle Larson or Jaden Bradley to light things up from deep.

As for Long Beach State, they could technically hang in there and keep things interesting. One bad shooting night from Caleb Love, who is responsible for a good chunk of Arizona`s offense, could lead to the game staying close for a considerable time.

Plus, the Wildcats aren`t exactly a good defensive team either. So if the Beach can find their rhythm on offense early and keep it, then the `Cats are in major trouble.

Arizona vs Long Beach State: Odds

TEAM	SPREAD	OVER/UNDER	MONEYLINE
ARIZONA	-20.5	O163.5/U163.5	-2993
LONG BEACH STATE	+20.5	O163.5/U163.5	+1295

Arizona vs Long Beach State: Picks

Moneyline: Long Beach State

With just how heavily favored Arizona is to win this game, it makes almost no sense to bet on them in this case as it will cost far, far more than your potential return (via USA Today Sportswire).

Against the spread: Arizona (-20.5)

As previously mentioned, there could be a chance that Long Beach State hangs around and keeps things close early on. But Arizona is just a single string of consecutive baskets away from putting them away for good, so this is the best pick as of this writing.

Furthermore, the `Cats are 9-5 against the spread in 14 games against fellow NCAA Tournament teams. The Beach just doesn`t have a big enough sample size ATS to even compete.

Over/under: 163.5 (-110)

Arizona possesses one of the best offenses in the nation in terms of pure scoring prowess. But their sub-par defense also allows a lot of baskets to be scored on them, which then leads to a lot of overs.