College Basketball Best Bets Today:

Fourteen games are on the college hoops card for Friday. It is the calm before the storm, as we’ll have nearly 150 games on Saturday. It is crazy to think about trying to handicap upwards of 300 teams, so we’ll take the smaller card today and be thankful for it. Tomorrow’s will be a bit more labor-intensive to say the least.

But, this is what you can expect to see for the next seven weeks or so before we head into conference tournaments and then the postseason tourneys. Friday will have one or two big games from the Big Ten, a lot of MAAC and NEC, and some other conferences mixed in.

 

***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.*

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.

Central Michigan Chippewas at Toledo Rockets (-3, 152)

8 p.m. ET

Toledo looks for the “MAChigan” sweep here, as they’ve beaten Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan in the last two games, so now they’ve got their sights set on Central Michigan. Eastern is the only team that they will play again and that could be an interesting one after a 90-87 decision on Tuesday.

But, the focus here is the CMU game. I bet against CMU with Ohio six days ago and the Bobcats failed to cover in a 57-55 win, as they were 4-of-10 at the free throw line and let a 10-point lead slip away. Akron just took the Chippewas to the woodshed last time out with a 16-point win. I think I was on the right track with looking to fade this Central Michigan team and I will do it again here.

Both of these teams are bad defensively, but Central Michigan is far worse on offense. We’ve got a huge TO% discrepancy on offense between the two, as Toledo is 17th in TO% and CMU is 333rd. While KenPom does have CMU down for a top-10 strength of schedule, remember that his rankings don’t consider lower-division games. Central Michigan has played four of those, accounting for two-thirds of their wins. Torvik has these two teams nearly identical at 123rd (CMU) and 132nd (Toledo).

I’m actually surprised at how pedestrian the Rockets have been on offense. They’re in the 200s in 2P% and 3P%. Under head coach Tod Kowalczyk, this is the first time Toledo has been outside the top 100 in 3P% since 2017. It is their worst ranking in 2P% since 2020, as they’ve been 106th or higher in each of the last four seasons. He doesn’t have the same talent, but he’s a sharp offensive mind and the team should improve as we go along.

I think that includes tonight and I think this is a solid matchup for them.

Pick: Toledo -3.5

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR