College basketball best bets today

Regular readers of the column will get this reference, but I wound up not putting together that Change.org petition about changing the college basketball schedule. I don’t think it would have been read anyway, but we have 15 games on Friday, 149 on Saturday, and 17 on our first Sunday without the NFL since September 3. The small slate makes it hard to have college basketball best bets today, but 15 games are better than no games.

For those who have not seen, I am participating in the Circa College Hoops Challenge hosted by Matt Youmans and graciously incentivized by Circa owner Derek Stevens, as we’re all vying for a cabana at Stadium Swim and a $1000 credit, plus a gift card to Brooklyn’s Best Pizza & Pasta. Saturday games are selected using Friday’s DraftKings lines and are released on VSiN Tonight (6-9 p.m. ET). Keep an eye on the contest here.

 

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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. Check out the Tracking Sheet for this season’s results and our college basketball home page for more CBB content.

Here is one college basketball best bet for today.

Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publish.

Siena Saints at Rider Broncs (-10.5, 137)

7 p.m. ET

Two atrocious offensive teams meet in Lawrenceville, New Jersey tonight for a MAAC clash between Siena and Rider. Rider checks in with the 343rd eFG% offense and Siena has the 337th eFG% offense, so these are two teams that really don’t make a whole lot of shots.

Rider is 346th in the nation in 2P% offense and 314th in 3P% per Bart Torvik. Siena is 271st in 2P% and 356th in 3P%. Not only does Siena stink on offense, but they’ve also turned the ball over on 24.5% of their possessions, which is the second-highest rate in the nation (Mississippi Valley State). 

Siena may be able to possess the ball a little bit more tonight because Rider doesn’t force turnovers. The Broncs are 294th in the nation in TO% on defense. But that doesn’t mean that they’ll make more shots.

The Saints are really beaten up right now. They’ve scored .772, .797, and .789 points per possession in their last three games. Leading scorer Sean Durugordon has missed the last two. Second-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder Michael Eley has missed the last three. Leading rebounder Michael Evbaghary missed the last game with back issues.

Head coach Carmen Marciarello hinted at some minutes restrictions for the injured guys, if they are even healthy enough to play. Also lost in this shuffle so far is that Rider has played their last four games to 63, 69, 65, and 63 possessions, so they’ve slowed down the tempo.

Lastly, these two teams struggle from deep. As mentioned, Rider is 314th at 30.2%, but they also have a shot share of just 28.2% on 3s. Siena is shooting 26.4% from 3 with a 33.3% 3P Rate. The Broncs are finishing at just 51% at the rim and rank 11th in 2P% in MAAC play.

I know some players might come back tonight and that’s probably why the total has risen, but these are bad offensive teams and Siena’s guys still aren’t 100%.

Pick: Under 137

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