The No. 4 seed Arizona Wildcats open their NCAA Tournament against the No. 13 Akron Zips on Friday night. Arizona (22-12) went 14-6 in their first year as a member of the Big 12 Conference and finished as the runner-up in the conference tournament. Akron (28-6) won the MAC's regular season and conference tournament titles, and represents the conference in the Big Dance for the second consecutive season.

Tipoff from Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle is set for 7:35 p.m. ET. The Wildcats are 14.5-point favorites in the latest Akron vs. Arizona via SportsLine consensus, while the over/under for total points is 165.5.

Before making any Akron vs. Arizona picks, check out the college basketball predictions from the SportsLine Projection Model.

The model simulates every Division 1 college basketball game 10,000 times. It enters the 2025 NCAA Tournament on a 228-166 roll (+2025) on all top-rated college basketball picks dating back to 2023. This model has also produced brackets that have beaten over 91% of CBS Sports entries in four of the last six tournaments and nailed 24 first-round upsets by double-digit seeds! Anyone following could have seen HUGE returns!

The model has simulated Akron vs. Arizona 10,000 times and the results are in. We can tell you that the model is leaning Under and it also says one side of the spread is the better value!

So who wins Akron vs. Arizona, and which side of the spread is the better value? Join SportsLine right now to see which side of the spread you need to jump on, all from the computer model that is 228-166 (+2025) on top-rated college basketball picks and has nailed 24 double-digit upsets!