College basketball best bets today

There sure is a lot happening in the college basketball world right now. We’ve got our 2024 Conference Tournament Betting Guide with previews of all the conference tourneys that have started and those that start tomorrow or Sunday. We also have some unusual betting activity from UAB/Temple in the spotlight. We also have the end of the regular season in numerous conferences today, tomorrow, and Sunday.

We can only solve one thing at a time, though, and right now, that is the college basketball best bets today. It is a busier Friday than normal with 27 games, many of them from conference tournaments.

 

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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 are two college basketball best bets for today.

Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publish.

Belmont Bruins (-1, 151) vs. Northern Iowa Panthers

3:30 p.m. ET

I wanted to avoid this game with a little bit smaller of a window for readers, but I think it’s a tough card and this was a game that I kept coming back to. Belmont played yesterday and comfortably rolled over Valparaiso, so it was a nice appetizer to a bigger game here tonight against UNI. The Bruins were able to spread out the playing time and empty the bench, so I don’t think that they are fatigued at all here.

Belmont is a top-tier offensive team. They rank 22nd in eFG% offense, 32nd in 2P%, and 20th in 3P%. Northern Iowa is a good offense, but not nearly as good of one as Belmont. Furthermore, while both teams have their mishaps defensively, Belmont is better by a good margin in 3P% defense, holding opponents to 33.2%, while UNI holds opponents to 34.5%.

Northern Iowa did beat Belmont earlier this season, but that was when the Bruins didn’t have Ja’Kobi Gillespie and struggled badly for a prolonged stretch of games. He’s back and only played 19 minutes last night. When Belmot had Gillespie way back on Nov. 29, they beat Northern Iowa by 20.

I like that the Bruins have played a game, gotten comfortable on the floor, racked up 1.116 PPP last night, and simply have the better offensive team and maybe even the better defensive one as well.

Pick: Belmont -1

Morehead State Eagles (-8.5, 147) vs. UT Martin Skyhawks

10:30 p.m. ET

Semifinal action in the OVC Tournament concludes with a matchup between Morehead State and UT Martin. I said coming into the tourney that I felt like UT Martin was a decent pick to win, but did suggest a moneyline rollover vs. the straight futures price. Well, with this line out to 8.5 and UT Martin as high as +320 at DraftKings, that seems like sage advice.

Of course, they have to pull the upset here, but I wouldn’t have said that if I didn’t think the Skyhawks had a fighting chance and I’ll take them from a spread standpoint in this one. It may help that Morehead State played a game and comfortably beat SIU Edwardsville last night, but there are a lot of things to like about the Skyhawks.

They’ve held the opposition to a 27% shot share on Close Twos, which is the third-lowest mark in the nation. They are also a top-100 team defensively from beyond the arc. I think they make it tough to blow them out because they play such good defense. They also play good defense without fouling, coming in 16th in FT Rate against. 

By forcing teams into a lot of jump shots, especially in a neutral setting like what we have at the Ford Center in Evansville, I like what they do on defense. On offense, they’re shooting 36.6% from 3, so they can more than hold their own there. If they can get inside a bit on Morehead State and play up that advantage, I think they can definitely pull off the shocker in this one.

But, for the purposes of this article, I’ll just take them +8.5 here. They split with Morehead during the regular season and have won 11 of 12 since the Jan. 18 loss.

Pick: UT Martin +8.5

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