Sportsbooks rise to the occasion for big events like the Final Four, offering endless March Madness odds and plenty of ways to wager on Saturday’s NCAA Tournament semifinal games.
As this year's March Madness bracket dwindles down, the Purdue Boilermakers battle the upstart North Carolina State Wolfpack in the first game, tipping off at 6:09 p.m. ET, and the defending champion UConn Huskies clash with the Alabama Crimson Tide at 8:49 p.m. ET.
I take my best bets for those Final Four showdowns and combine them for a March Madness picks parlay, with two legs from each contest. As always, when it comes to parlay betting, recognize the risk involved in tying bets together and keep your bet size lower than your single-game wagers.
Here are my Final Four parlay picks for Purdue vs. NC State and UConn vs. Alabama on Saturday, April 6.
March Madness Final Four Parlays
- Mark Sears 3+ 3-pointers + Tristen Newton 5+ assists + Zach Edey 13+ rebounds + Purdue moneyline (+311 at bet365)
Click on pick to jump to the full analysis.
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Best Final Four parlay picks
Mark Sears 3+ 3-pointers
Tristen Newton 5+ assists
Zach Edey 13+ rebounds
Purdue moneyline
We’re keeping it cut and dry with the Final Four parlay, utilizing bet365’s “milestone” prop markets but you can find similar offerings with “alternative” props at other mainstream sportsbooks. Available odds, of course, are going to vary depending on where you bet.
We start with what should be a high-scoring game between UConn and Alabama. The Crimson Tide are already a busy team from beyond the arc but the Tide could be extra dependent on the triple to keep pace with the Huskies' attack.
Mark Sears is Alabama’s biggest scoring threat and with UConn’s size shutting down the paint, he’ll be pushed to the perimeter. He’s knocked down three or more 3-pointers in three of Bama’s four NCAA tournament games, and the game script says the Crimson Tide could be trailing big (+11.5 dogs), so even more reason to press from the perimeter.
As for Connecticut, senior point guard Tristen Newton is leading the charge of this dynamic offense. This game total is the second-highest O/U the Huskies have seen all season, which means plenty of buckets – and opportunities for assists. Newton has dished out five or more dimes in nine of his last 11 and game models call for close to seven on Saturday.
Flipping it to the late game, Purdue’s “tower of power” Zach Edey has been a beast on the boards all tournament. The 7-foot-4 center has a massive size advantage over NC State’s frontcourt and has hauled in more than 16 rebounds per game during the Big Dance and has recorded 14 or more in each of those contests. Player forecasts call for more than 15 boards over 38 minutes from Edey on Saturday.
And finally, we’ll tie a bow on our Final Four parlay pick with the Boilermakers to win outright and end NC State’s Cinderella run. Purdue is a 9.5-point favorite and while some game models call for a closer contest, they all predict “Boiler Up!” to win.
The great thing about adding a moneyline to the parlay at bet365 is that if Purdue gets ahead by 15 points at any time in the game, the book will grade it as a winner with their “early payout” program. So even if the Boilermakers suffer a catastrophic collapse after being up 15-plus, the parlay stays alive.
