Florida vs Houston Prediction, Preview & Odds: NCAA Tournament National Championship

Florida vs Houston How To Watch

Date: Monday, April 7
Venue: Alamodome, San Antonio, TX
Time: 8:50 pm
TV: CBS
Teams: (1) Florida (35-4), (1) Houston (34-4)
NCAA Tournament Schedule, Predictions, Previews

Why Florida Will Win

Houston had no problem dealing with Duke’s size, and it overcame the discrepancy in length all season, but the Gators are a whole other ballgame on the boards.

The Cougars gets away with their overall lack of length by being one step quicker, smarter, and more aggressive than everyone. They outrebounded a Duke team that piled up stats against a weak ACC. Florida has that same Houston nastiness to go along with the size and fight on the boards.

Auburn is massive. Florida outrebounded the Tigers 39-30. Combine the Gators bigs, and the depth, and the fearlessness and scoring ability of Walter Clayton Jr., and this is the all-around right combination to deal with what Houston brings.

And then there’s the clutch factor. Mostly helped by the free throw shooting of Clayton Jr., and the smarts of everyone to keep getting him the ball, Florida took over late against Auburn. It didn’t gack up like Duke did.

The defense clamped down holding the Tigers to 27 points in the second half, overall the team survived the AU defensive pressure down the stretch, and …

Why Houston Will Win

Yeah, Florida survived when Auburn turned up the defensive screws late, but it sure was shaky trying to get out alive.

When it was time to try pulling out something special, Houston played defense like it had seven guys on the floor. But that’s nothing new.

Duke showed off the firepower in bunches throughout the season and the NCAA Tournament. How many times this season did it fail to score 68 points? Before dealing with the Cougars, once, in a weird win over Wake Forest in late January.

Houston’s No. 1 scoring defense was all over the Blue Devil stars over the last eight minutes. It didn’t let the guards get to the rim, it broke up almost all the inside plays to 7-2 Khaman Maluach - he hit just one of two shots because the alley-oops didn’t oop - and the team came though with the free throws that Duke didn’t.

Houston made 14-of-18, including a few monster ones late. Duke was great on the line until it mattered. This Cougar team figures out how to win game after game after game by outworking everyone.

Florida vs Houston: Who Will Win?

The Houston pressure will be there from the start. It has the dominant guards to be all over Clayton, and as good as they are, the Florida bigs aren’t anywhere near the same class as the Duke big men.

But unlike Duke, Florida is WAY more battle hardened.

No one brings the fight like Houston, but Florida isn’t all that far off. The Gators will come through over the last two minutes where the Blue Devils failed.

Florida vs Houston Prediction, Betting Lines

Prediction: Florida 74, Houston 68
Florida vs Houston Betting Lines
BetMGM Line: COMING
DraftKings Line: COMING
FanDuel Line: COMING
ATS Confidence out of 5: COMING
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