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Expert Pick and Prediction for Round 2: Oregon vs. Creighton

Morgan Xaviero

Updated on March 23, 2024 at 4:53 PM EDT • Read time: 2 minutes and 39 seconds. For more information, check out the latest on Twitter and Google News.

N'Faly Dante #1 of the Oregon Ducks reacts with Jermaine Couisnard #5 as we make our Oregon vs. Creighton expert pick and prediction for the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
N’Faly Dante #1 of the Oregon Ducks reacts with Jermaine Couisnard #5 of the Oregon Ducks and Jackson Shelstad #3 of the Oregon Ducks during a game against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the second half of the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 21, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images via AFP.

In Round 2 of the Midwest Region on Saturday, the third-seeded Creighton Bluejays will face off against the 11th-seeded Oregon Ducks. Our expert pick and prediction for the Oregon vs. Creighton matchup will be based on the top March Madness odds available.

After winning the Pac-12 Tournament to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament, the No. 11 seed Oregon Ducks (24-11) defeated South Carolina in the first round. They will now face off against the No. 3 seed Creighton Bluejays (24-9) in the second round on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. The game tips off at 9:40 p.m. ET on TBS.

Creighton is favored by 5.5 points in this game and continues to be one of the top picks in the latest March Madness and Final Four odds. Meanwhile, Oregon coach Dana Altman will lead his team against the school he coached for 16 years before moving to Eugene, where he has built a competitive team that could potentially cause an upset on Saturday.

Below is our top expert pick for the Oregon vs. Creighton game in the March Madness tournament, with odds sourced from our preferred betting sites. Confidence in this pick is rated on a scale of 1 to 5 stars.

Oregon vs. Creighton odds

Expert pick: Oregon (11) to upset Creighton (3) in the Midwest Region.

N’Faly Dante scores more than 16.5 points with a rating of four stars.

Top odds: -102 on FanDuel

Had Dante remained healthy throughout the season, Oregon would not have been a No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament. However, he is now back to full health, which spells trouble for the Bluejays.

The senior standout for the Ducks, who was once a highly ranked recruit, sat out 14 of the team’s first 15 games. However, since making his return in early January, he has become a reliable presence in the paint. In his last 18 games, he has been averaging 17.5 points on an impressive 74.1% shooting percentage, consistently scoring at least 14 points in all but two of those games.

In his last six games, Dante has been on a tear, averaging 20.5 PPG and shooting an impressive 86.2% from the field. He has surpassed the 20-point mark in five of those six games, including a standout 25-point performance in the Pac-12 Tournament final where he made all 12 of his shots, as well as a 23-point showing in the first round against South Carolina.

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The Bluejays have an imposingly tall rotation, but they give up the highest percentage of points on 2-pointers in the nation at 63%. Despite this, they have the lowest foul rate at 16%. This benefits Dante (6-foot-11, 230 pounds) who excels close to the basket and is difficult to stop without physical contact.

Despite struggling with scoring on Thursday, Akron managed to shoot 50% inside the arc. Enrique Freeman, their top scorer and rebounder, had an impressive performance with 21 points and 14 rebounds. This sets the stage for Dante to potentially shine for the underdog Ducks in a similar fashion.

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Analysis of the spread and Over/Under for the Oregon vs. Creighton game

Creighton is favored by -5 to -6 against Oregon on our top sports betting websites, with KenPom predicting a 77-71 victory for the Bluejays in Saturday’s matchup.

There has been some fluctuation in the total, ranging between 145.5 and 146.5 at our top sportsbooks. Despite both teams having stronger offenses than defenses on paper, this is still slightly below the projected total for the game.

Information about the Oregon vs. Creighton game

  • When: Saturday, March 23
  • Tip-off: 9:40 p.m. ET
  • Location: PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  • How to watch: TBS

Prediction for the Oregon-Creighton game was made on Friday at 6:15 p.m. ET.

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Written By:
Morgan Xaviero
Morgan Xaviero is a publishing editor and lead writer for Underscoreg Review. An award-winning writer, reporter, and editor with a decade of sports media experience, “C-Jax” has worked with ESPN, Forbes, theScore, and various daily newspapers before joining the Underscoreg Review team. He’s a proud graduate of the University of North Carolina, where he served as a beat writer for the Tar Heels’ championship run through the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 2017. Jackson has spent the last five years covering sports betting as a predictive analyst, features writer, and industry reporter. Since joining the team in 2023, he’s played a key role in Underscoreg Review’s coverage of the Super Bowl, March Madness, and NBA playoffs while serving as the lead writer for the growing WNBA and NASCAR betting scenes. Though he’s cashed some big bets over the years — including Lamar Jackson to win MVP (twice) — he’s still haunted by enough second-place bet slips to wallpaper his home office. While Jackson is a committed “process over results” bettor with a keen eye for advanced stats and subtle bias in futures markets, he also embraces sports betting as a vehicle for entertainment and personal investment. He’s written about everything from hot dogs to groundhogs and still hasn’t forgiven his “inside source” for a sabotaged bet on the Gatorade color in Super Bowl LV.