College basketball best bets today
There are four games on the college basketball card for today, as the NIT rolls on and the CBI plays its semifinal round down in Daytona Beach. We do have all of our Sweet 16 previews up in our March Madness Hub for you to check out in advance of Thursday and Friday’s games, so I encourage you to check that out if you’re starved for a little more college basketball content.
One game out of the four caught my attention a bit for tonight, so let’s look at that matchup.
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.
Fairfield Stags vs. Seattle Redhawks (-7, 145.5)
9:30 p.m. ET
The last tip-off of the night is the second semifinal in the CBA, as Fairfield takes on Seattle. It will be the third game in three days for the Stags and third game in four days for the Redhawks. This is a big step up in class defensively for the Stags, who have knocked off Little Rock and Chicago State in the tournament.
Seattle ranks 18th in eFG% defense and fourth in 3P% defense. That has been the calling card for Chris Victor’s team for a while now and those are two things that could definitely trip up Fairfield because the Stags take a 3 with nearly 42% of their shots and are shooting 36.5% on triple tries. Fairfield isn’t nearly as strong on the 2-point side, ranking around the national average.
Seattle should be able to slow this game down a little bit as well, as they rank in the 210s in adjusted tempo per Bart Torvik. Some tired legs could slow Fairfield down a little bit as well. I do think the Stags will commit a little more on defense in this game after allowing 1.044 and 1.159 points per possession to this point. They’re going to have to because Seattle has only allowed .894 and .844 PPP through two games.
The Redhawks are pretty average offensively, so I don’t think they’ll go lighting up the scoreboard, even though Fairfield’s defense is a little bit iffy. The Stags could force a few turnovers here with a 20.3% TO% and Seattle’s 18.6% TO%, but I think the Redhawks defense will play well enough to minimize the impact of those.
Once you get to this point, you have a shot at some hardware, so I would anticipate a tighter game from a tempo and effort standpoint. Shop around, as you can find some 146.5s out there.
Pick: Under 145.5
