College Basketball Best Bets Today:

Exam week is here in college basketball and that often means a lighter workload on the court for the players. As a prime example, there are just five games on Monday to get things started for the week. We have 24 games tomorrow, 21 games on Wednesday, seven games on Thursday, and 11 games on Friday. It isn’t exam week for every school, as it all depends on how the calendar falls, but it is a week where the student-athletes are expected to focus on staying eligible.

So, that’s 68 games this week. We had 99 games on Saturday alone. That should mean that this week is a good opportunity to recalibrate and check in further on all the stats and metrics. Schedules have been very unbalanced to this point and the data can be very skewed. With fewer games to handicap, time can be spent on the less exciting, but more essential, parts of studying the sport.

 

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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.

Abilene Christian Wildcats at Baylor Bears (-24, 141.5)

8 p.m. ET

With only five games on the card, the options are very limited tonight. But, I’ve found something I like in the Abilene Christian vs. Baylor game, as little brother goes up against big brother in the Lone Star State. Both of these teams like to be aggressive on defense and force a lot of turnovers. I could see that pace inflated a bit as a result and we could also see a little bit of a transition game at times.

Abilene Christian is 17th in Proximity per Haslametrics, which is a metric of shooting proximity vs. the average opponent. The Wildcats don’t take a lot of 3s, but they are able to get the ball inside a little bit. We’ll see if they can find success with that against a Baylor team that typically does really well to protect the rim, but I do wonder if we get some defensive lapses and a lack of effort on that end from the Bears.

Scott Drew’s team has already played Gonzaga, Arkansas, St. John’s, Tennessee, and UConn. I’m not sure Abilene Christian really gets the defensive juices flowing. Even a bad New Orleans team had .931 PPP over 64 possessions in a game that ended 91-60.

I could see this one going a similar way, but ACU is more talented offensively than the Privateers. However, the Wildcats are bad defensively outside of forcing turnovers. Both teams are tied for 335th in eFG% defense against Division I opponents. The Wildcats are there because opponents are firing at a 45% clip from 3. Baylor is shooting nearly 38% on 3s.

Baylor has mostly played at a slower tempo this season, but did open it up against Sam Houston State and Tarleton State to have a little fun and encourage some offensive creativity. I could see the same here.

Pick: Over 141.5

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