2026 NCAA tournament odds, picks, predictions: Best bets for Saturday's second-round games

The overall No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils fell behind 16-seed Siena by double digits on Thursday, and while the Blue Devils came back towin 71-65, Duke was never within shouting distance of covering the 28.5-point spread. The Blue Devils will take on 9-seed TCU on Saturday, and opened as a double-digit favorite.

Underdogs went 10-6 against the spread on Thursday, including six outright wins, leading to some big spreads for Saturday's games.

Below you'll find the favorite wagers for Saturday's Round 2 games from our college basketball handicappers — Corbie Craig, Matt Jacob, Matt Russell and Frank Schwab.

Best bets for Saturday's Round 2 games

(9) TCU vs. (1) Duke (-11.5, 139.5)

Russell:How much more do we need to see? Duke isn't the same team without Patrick Ngongba and Caleb Foster.

What team would be able to play at the same super-high standard that the Blue Devils set for themselves, without two crucial starters?

We've got four data points of what Duke is without those two, and it's fundamentally an undersized, shallow, quality tournament team. The issue is that the Blue Devils are still rated in the betting market like one of the top-four teams in the country.

By comparison, TCU just played Kansas on a (debatably) neutral court in Kansas City and the line was -5.5, with the Horned Frogs covering the spread by the hook. Nothing in Duke's four games (1-3 ATS) without Ngongba and Foster should make us believe it's performing at Kansas' level, let alone 5.5 points higher.

So, using point spread math, there has to be value on a TCU team that will match up much better with Duke in the paint than Siena did.

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Bet:TCU +11.5

No. 11 Texas vs. No. 3 Gonzaga (-6.5, 147.5)

Russell:It feels like we see it every year, but rarely is the team in the role of "play-in problem" one that has the talent (and budget) of Texas. The Longhorns have taken advantage of a pair of porous defenses in NC State and BYU, and Gonzaga's top-10 defense (byKenPom) will be more suffocating. However, 7-footer Matas Vokietaitas has taken a more involved role in the offense and is a tough matchup for the Zags. Plus, Texas has the athleticism and length of Dailyn Swain and Tramon Mark that will match up well with Gonzaga's guards.

With a line at THE WINDOW projected tighter than this one, there's an easy case for why this game could come down to the wire, just so long as Texas has any legs left after a busy week with extensive travel.

Bet: Texas +6.5

No. 12 High Point vs. No. 4 Arkansas (-11.5, 168.5)

Russell:We were able to sniff out High Point's ability to hang with Wisconsin enough to stay within the number, but the Panthers took it up a notch by pulling off the patented 12-5 upset of the Badgers.

Starting inside-outside duo Terry Anderson and Rob Martin each had a double-double, and so did Cam'Ron Fletcher off the bench, playing his most minutes (33) since a late-season injury.

With those three at full speed, and Chase Johnston mixing in some of the wildest 3s you've ever seen in your life, the Panthers' power rating in the betting market isn't as high as it should be.

As expected, the Razorbacks overwhelmed Hawaii physically, and were never in danger of being upset. Arkansas did have occasional lapses, though, allowing the Rainbow Warriors to give us a scare late in relation to the point spread.

Athletically more comparable to Arkansas, High Point will make the Hogs pay for any defensive lulls, and with a line this high, there's plenty of room for the Panthers to scare Arkansas even without pulling off another stunner.

Bet: High Point +11.5

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 20, 2026

2026 NCAA tournament odds, picks, predictions: Best bets for Saturday's second-round games

The overall No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils fell behind 16-seed Siena by double digits on Thursday, and while the Blue Devils...

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TSA workers pushed to the brink as DHS shutdown forces some to get 2nd jobs

The ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown is taking its toll on the thousands of Transportation Security Administration employees at airports who have been working without pay.

Approximately 60,000 TSA officers who have gone over a month with partial pay began receiving their first $0 paychecks last week.

Many say they are living in fear, with some taking on extra jobs or even leaving the agency altogether to make ends meet.

And if there is no relief soon, veteran TSA leaders fear that the stress and uncertainty could impact operations for years.

"Who wants to go work in public service in the public sector when you're treated like a yo-yo?" a TSA worker who asked to remain anonymous told ABC News.

The current partial shutdown, now in its second month, comes close to last fall's 43-day federal government shutdown, which paused payments to thousands of TSA workers, who were still required to work their shift.

Video TSA agent on working without pay: No 'fuel to continue coming to work'

Angela Grana, a TSA officer at Durango-La Plata County Airport in Colorado, told ABC News Live on Monday, the first day that TSA workers missed their checks, that the entire situation has been humiliating for her co-workers.

"The stories I get are very demoralizing," Grana, who serves as the state's regional vice president for AFGE TSA Local 1127, said. "To go ahead and do the Uber Eats or any other kind of side job, we have to have extra permission. For now, we can't just do it."

Senate Democrats have vowed to block funding for DHS until reforms are made to Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal law enforcement.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on Democrats Monday to join a discharge petition that would fund all DHS agencies except for ICE.

A vote on similar legislation failed earlier in the Senate. Jeffries would need at least four Republicans to sign on with all Democrats for the discharge petition to move forward.

TSA says nearly 10% of its officers called out sick Tuesday

Grana said the stress of making ends meet and keeping the airports safe is getting to a lot of TSA officers. Several airports across the country have begunfood pantriesfor their employees affected by the partial shutdown.

"Let me tell you, for us to be concentrating on our jobs without the hunger pains in our stomachs. It's really difficult to do. We can't get it wrong," Grana said.  "We have to get it right every time. We cannot miss a bag, we cannot miss a threat."

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Jill DeJanovich, a TSA officer at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and single mom of four, was one of the nearly 2,700 TSA workerswho called out sickthis week, because of the demands put on her.

DeJanovich, who is the a AFGE Local 1260 Chief Administrative Point of contact in Nevada, said she is frustrated with Congress for not moving forward and ending the quagmire over funding.

"Someone needs to cross the line before Congress goes on break for Easter recess," she said.

While some TSA officers said they had to power on through, for others, like Robert Echeverria, the strain of a second DHS shutdown in five months proved to be too much.

After nine years working at Salt Lake City International Airport a lead TSA officer, Echeverria told ABC News that he left his job after the current shutdown. Echeverria said his family's life savings were depleted after the last shutdown.

"Emotionally, we couldn't go through that strain anymore," he told ABC News.

"It was just really hard for my wife and emotionally to see my kids going through a hard time asking for things, and we wouldn't be able to actually help them out," he added.

A TSA worker who asked not to be named warned that the loss of employees can't easily be fixed.

"Losing seasoned employees is very difficult to replace," the TSA worker said. "New hires take two years to get off probation."

Airports collect donations for TSA staffers during government shutdown

The worker added that the accumulating debt borne by government employees will also affect staffing.

"One of the requirements is that you have a great credit rating. A lot of our officers are not going to have that now," they said.

Joseph Cerletti, a TSA officer at Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport, told ABC News that he struggles to explain to his kids about their financial issues now that his family has to depend solely on his wife's income.

Cerletti relented that he and his coworkers "don't have the upper ground here" when it comes to fighting for their rights.

"It's very hard to find words in the English language to describe how I feel about it, other than speechless," he said. "This is just what I've been describing lately as figuratively an uphill gunfight."

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 20, 2026

TSA workers pushed to the brink as DHS shutdown forces some to get 2nd jobs

The ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown is taking its toll on the thousands of Transportation Security Admin...

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They were painting nails for a party. Then an Iranian missile killed them

As they painted their nails and curled their eyelashes for the end of Ramadan, family and friends in Sahira and Hadeel's Beauty Salon were not too worried when they heard the faint sound of sirens in the distance.

Instead, the women continued their preparations for Eid, believing there was little chance thatan Iranian missilewould be heading towards the small Palestinian town of Beit Awwa, in the Hebron Hills.

Moments later, the peaceful evening came to an end as shrapnel ripped through the walls of the beauty parlour and blew the door off its hinges.

Sahira, 36, Amal, 29, and Mais, 30, all from the same extended family of the Masalmeh clan, which calls the village home, died instantly as the blast erupted next to the shed housing the salon.

Another of the women, Aseel, 29, died in hospital, with her death announced as the other victims were about to be buried.

As well as preparing to celebrate Eid, which was expected to fall on Thursday or Friday, Aseel and Amal were several months pregnant and looking forward to welcoming their new children later in the year.

The four young women, described as "kind and beautiful", were the first Palestinians to die duringIsrael and Iran's conflict, and are the latest victims to die after Iran launched cluster munitions indiscriminately at towns and cities.

TheIsrael Defense Forces (IDF)said the incident was a "direct hit" from one of the missiles – which are used to scatter dozens of bombs through the sky – but Palestinian officials claimed that the damage was caused by an errant Israeli interceptor.

Cluster munitions have been bypassing Israeli defences in recent weeks with a "shotgun" approach, equivalent to firing "pellets" at Israeli targets. Even if the main warhead is intercepted, the munitions can still sometimes be deployed and can land at locations miles apart.

Ten other people were injured in Wednesday's attack, including a three-year-old girl and Sahira's sister-in-law and business partner Hadeel, 24, who survived with shrapnel injuries to her eyes, stomach and legs.

"We were working as usual," Hadeel, wearing a white hospital bandage over her nose and forehead, told The Telegraph as friends and family consoled her.

"We heard the sirens but didn't pay attention – we didn't think anything would happen or that anything would fall on us."

She said a customer had gone outside and seen "something glowing in the sky, red in colour" but she told her not to worry, believing that it would not land in the town.

"I told her to come back inside so nothing would happen to us," she said. "She stayed scared, standing behind me, while I continued working normally.

"Suddenly, the electricity went out and something struck. I didn't see anything. I opened the door and went outside, and I didn't even realise that I was injured.

"I started screaming and called my aunt and uncle telling them 'Come, save them.' My aunt went in to help the girls and started screaming 'Sahira is dead, Sahira is dead'."

Hadeel spoke after leaving hospital to pay her respects to Sahira and the other women.

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"I haven't completed my treatment, I left to say goodbye to Sahira," she said. "I lost her. I couldn't believe she had been killed. I wanted to see her."

Unlike Israeli towns, Beit Awwa has no alarms or bomb shelters. The only reliable signal of incoming fire is the sound of sirens from the settlement of Negohot, two miles away.

The horror of the tragedy was visible to all on Wednesday as friends gazed in disbelief at the dried pools of blood on the floor. Red stains could be seen spattered on the walls, next to butterfly decorations and drawings of manicured nails and eyelashes.

Brightly coloured lipsticks, varnish, acrylic nails and other beauty products lay strewn across the salon, while curlers and foundation kits were seen scattered outside alongside shrapnel.

On the building's exterior, moon and star fairy lights hung up for Ramadan had been tossed aside by the blast, which hit with such force that shrapnel entered through one wall and out the other.

Witnesses said they ran to save the women only to discover that it was too late when they were met with the sight of severed limbs and a "river of blood" within the salon.

Abedullrazig Almasalmeh, 32, a neighbour, said: "I heard the sound of the blast and then voices. Then I heard screams, crying. People started to run and I found Sahira's mother at the main door. She was crying, and she told me, she told me 'my daughter is dead'.

"I told her, 'don't worry, inshallah, everything will be okay'. The I entered the salon and there was a bloody river, there were lower, upper limbs, organs everywhere. It was horrible."

Palestinians had hoped to stay clear of the conflict, which began last month, but Wednesday's atrocity left them in a situation that they described as "Bein Narain", Arabic for being caught between two fires.

As mourners prepared to carry the bodies, draped in blankets and Palestinian flags, towards a funeral prayer in a school playground, there was a reminder of the danger as a missile warning came through on a handful of phones that receive Israeli alerts.

For weeks, residents had been watching the news, seeing Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other Israeli citiescome under attackand occasionally hearing missiles flying above. However, until Wednesday, they did not think of themselves as collateral for the Iranian regime.

"When I see the rockets and TV, I wasn't afraid, but when I saw the scene of the women's bodies outside I was shocked," Suhair, a cousin of Sahira, said.

"We see the situation, the war between Iran and Israel. We see the rockets, we hear the rockets many times. But we didn't think that it was going to hit this village, maybe Hebron because it's big, but not here or the salon. Now everyone does not want to leave the house. There are no sirens or shelters. We feel afraid – there is no safety."

The IDF and Iran continued to trade blows on Thursday as Tehran continued to firecluster munitionsand the use of the banned weapons have claimed the lives of at least four Israeli civilians.

Now the residents of Beit Awwa are feeling the same pain as bereaved families on the other side of the Green Line, having been dragged into a war that was nothing to do with them.

"What is our fault?" Hadeel said. "We were in our workplace, earning our living. What do they want from us?".

Photography by Eyal Warshavsky

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byDaniel Coleman

in

March 20, 2026

They were painting nails for a party. Then an Iranian missile killed them

As they painted their nails and curled their eyelashes for the end of Ramadan, family and friends in Sahira and Hadeel...

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This town just recorded the hottest March temperature in US history

A small Arizona community broke the record for highest temperature ever recorded in March in the United States, reaching a scorching 110 degrees on March 19amid an early heat wave in the Southwest.

The temperature reached 110 degrees on March 19 near Martinez Lake, a recreation community in southwestern Arizona, about 45 minutes north of Yuma, the National Weather Servicesaid.

The previous March temperature record was first set in 1954 in Rio Grande, Texas, at 108 degrees. That record was also matched during this heat wave onMarch 18near North Shore, California, according to the weather service.

The news comes as Arizona, California and other Southwestern states have faced an unprecedented early heat wave for multiple days. The heat is the result of a high-pressure system spinning across the West, causing "an expansive dome of unusually hot temperatures," the weather service has said.

The resulting temperatures are unprecedented.

More than 18 million Americans remain under extreme heat warnings the morning of March 20 across Southern California, southern Nevada, and much of Arizona. Millions more were under heat advisories.

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More:Dozens of kids die in hot cars every year. This heat wave raises risk.

Heat wave shatters numerous daily, monthly records

The heat wave that set in earlier this week has already shattered daily high temperature records in cities throughout the Southwest and even some all-time March records.

Temperatures on March 19 in Phoenixsoared to 105 degrees, breaking the record of 97 for the same date in 2017, according to the weather service. With an extreme heat warning in effect for metro Phoenix, temperatures jumped into the three-digit range by around 1 p.m. The high temperature in Phoenix was around 25 degrees above normal. The first 105-degree day of the year, on average, normally occurs on May 22nd, the weather serviceposted on X.

Phoenix doesn't usually reach 100 degrees for the first time in a year until about May 10, though before this year, itsearliest-recorded 100-degree day in a yearwas March 26, 1988.

In the Los Angeles region,daily records dating back decadeshave been broken since the heat wave began. In Downtown Los Angeles on March 17, the high got to 98 degrees, smashing the record of 94 set over a century ago in 1914.

Cities in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming have brokenall-time March records.

Contributing: Sarah Henry, the Arizona Republic

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic:Arizona town shatters US temperature record for March

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 20, 2026

This town just recorded the hottest March temperature in US history

A small Arizona community broke the record for highest temperature ever recorded in March in the United States, reaching ...

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LeBron James posts triple-double while tying Robert Parish's NBA games played record

It's official. No player in NBA history has played in more regular-season games than LeBron James.

The Los Angeles Lakers' star tied a three-decade-old record on Thursday with his appearance in a game against the Miami Heat. It was his 1,611th career game, matching Boston Celtics great Robert Parish atop the NBA leaderboard. James started in all but two of those games. He was already the record-holder when factoring in his 292 playoff appearances, which bring his total up to 1,903 games.

James honored the occasion by posting a 19-point, 15-rebound, 10-assist triple-double ina 134-126 win. Of course, that wasn't the most notable performance of the night, asLuka Dončić continued an epic run with the Lakers' 60 point game since Kobe Bryant's 'Mamba Out' farewell in 2016.

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The games played record is hardly James' most prestigious, but it's still a testament to the longevity that has allowed him to continue performing at an All-Star level at age 41. He arrived in the NBA in 2003 at 18 years old and has performed at a standout level ever since while never missing more than half a season due to injury.

Entering Thursday, James was already the NBA's all-time leader in points (43,210), field goals (15,786), All-Star selections (22), All-NBA selections (13 first-team and 21 total), seasons played (23), playoff games (292) and, to be fair, turnovers (5,617). He's also fourth on the assists list, sixth on the steals list and fifth on the triple-doubles list.

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James' place in history is obviously secure. The question now is how many games he has left in him. There is rampant speculation about what he'll do this offseason, with his choices including retirement, a return to the Lakers orperhaps a reunion with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This season has seen James post some of the lowest numbers of his career and miss more than a few games to injury, including a 14-game stretch to open the season due to sciatica. He has already endedhis All-Star starting streak,his All-NBA streakandhis 10-point streak, all unprecedented in league history.

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 20, 2026

LeBron James posts triple-double while tying Robert Parish's NBA games played record

It's official. No player in NBA history has played in more regular-season games than LeBron James. The Los...

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