College Basketball Best Bets Today:
One more light day on the college hardwood, as exam week wraps up and we have 11 games to think about on Friday. We’ll have 82 games on Saturday and 29 more on Sunday, so college hoops heads will be happy to see what the weekend has in store.
Fridays are typically slow nights with big Thursday and Saturday slates, so this feels pretty normal this evening. Although, Arizona/UCLA and Indiana/Nebraska are a couple of really big conference tilts to think about.
***Top College Basketball Betting Resources***
*Join thousands of other sports bettors and unlock access to picks, public betting splits data, & the VSiN live video broadcast by upgrading to VSiN Pro. Grab your first month for less than $10.*
- NCAAB Expert Picks
- Greg Peterson's Daily Lines & Projections
- NCAAB Betting Hub
- NCAAB Week-By-Week Schedule
- Parlay Calculator
- NCAAB Betting Splits
- NCAAB Betting Odds
We have a ton of content rolling in here at VSiN on a daily basis, so you may want to bookmark our College Basketball Articles page so you can find this and also Greg Peterson’s top CBB bets of the day.
Tracking sheet is here. 2023-24 for reference is here.
This article will run Monday-Saturday. Lines will be from DraftKings, as they are widely available to readers. Shop around for the best prices.
Shout-outs to Bart Torvik, Erik Haslam, and Ken Pomeroy, as those are my three primary resources for information when handicapping.
Check the latest college basketball odds for legal U.S. sportsbooks across the country and our Vegas odds if you share a state with us here at VSiN. Also, give the college basketball betting splits a look for these or any other college basketball games today have your interest.
Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publish.
Omaha Mavericks at Northern Iowa Panthers (-14.5, 141)
8 p.m. ET
We’ve got a Summit League vs. Missouri Valley matchup tonight between Omaha and Northern Iowa. We’ve seen some interest in the total in this game and I tend to agree with where the line is going. Hopefully the Mavericks can speed the Panthers up a little bit to make this one feel a little bit safer, but Northern Iowa’s insane offensive efficiency is a big driving force.
The Panthers are fourth in the nation in eFG% offense, 26th in 2P%, and 7th in 3P% per Torvik based on games against Division I foes. UNI has also been spectacularly efficient against non-Top 100 teams, like the Mavericks. Against Top 100 teams – UC Irvine, Wichita State, North Texas, and St. Bonaventure – the Panthers have had their issues. They’ve mustered .864, 1.058, .744, and .897 points per possession.
In Division I games against non-Top 100 teams – Milwaukee, Western Illinois, Illinois Chicago, Northern Illinois – the Panthers have scored 1.279, 1.309, 1.348, and 1.516 PPP. Opponents have racked up points on the Mavericks this season, as the team ranks 295th in eFG% defense and 278th in adjusted defensive efficiency. The only games in which the Mavericks have held the opposition under 1 PPP are against Mid-America Christian, Lamar, and Sacramento State.
The Mavericks managed to give up 1.028 and 1.093 PPP to Minnesota and UNLV in games where those teams combined to go 7-for-35 from 3. This is a bad defensive team on the interior and on the perimeter, plus they don’t force many turnovers.
Omaha is trending up on offense, though, as they’ve had over a point per possession in four of their last five games. Third-year head coach Chris Crutchfield took his team from 288th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 281st in eFG% in his first season to 229th in AdjOE and 236 in eFG%, so he’s doing a decent job on that side after longtime head coach Derrin Hansen left the cupboard very bare.
Pick: Over 141
