College Basketball Best Bets Today:
The smallest college basketball slate since Christmastime only features seven games. Only 14 of the nation’s 364 teams are on the floor tonight and we also only have one Ivy League game for some reason. There are 154 games tomorrow, though, so we’ll have plenty of college hoops for those who are patient for just a few more hours.
Despite the small slate, we have two absolute bangers with St. John’s vs. UConn and VCU vs. Dayton, so for those staying in on a Friday night or hitting up the local watering hole, there are two strong games to follow.
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Tracking sheet is here. 2023-24 for reference is here.
This article will run Monday-Saturday (not next week, see exception above). 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.
USC Trojans at Purdue Boilermakers (-14, 146)
7 p.m. ET
The lone Big Ten game on the card for tonight features USC and Purdue. The Trojans are likely to be without leading scorer Desmond Claude, who is dealing with a bone bruise, but USC was still able to score 1.211 points per possession against Northwestern in one of their better conference performances on offense.
Purdue is a stellar offensive team, but they’re not all that great on defense. They’ve got a high TO% at 19.8% for the season and 22.8% in conference play, but opponents are also shooting over 55% on 2s against them. USC is having some difficulties on the offensive end, but they are shooting nearly 36% from 3 in league play and are shooting nearly 55% on 2s.
While no schedule is easy in the Big Ten, it is worth noting that the Boilermakers have played the 16th-ranked schedule in conference thus far per Torvik. This is the second game of a Midwest swing for USC, so they’re more acclimated to the time change and all of that, which has been a thing in this conference and other major conferences this season.
Purdue only has a 29.4% shot share on Close Twos and opponents are shooting 68.3% against them on those types of shots. I think those stats and some of the others that I mentioned will make it tough to cover such a big number, with or without Claude for the Trojans.
Pick: USC +14
