College basketball best bets today

Conference tournaments are in full swing, as we have 43 games on the Wednesday slate and all of them are conference tourney clashes. Ten conference tournaments start today. We’ve previewed 31 of the 32 so far with the Ivy League coming up today or tomorrow for that four-team tourney that begins on Saturday.

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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.

Cal Baptist Lancers vs. Utah Valley Wolverines (-5.5, 127)

9 p.m. ET

WACVegas kicks off today with first-round action at Orleans Arena. Two games are on the docket, with the first one between Cal Baptist and Utah Valley. The season really turned for Cal Baptist when PG Dominique Daniels went out. He missed the last 10 games of the season and Cal Baptist went 2-8, beating a UT Rio Grande Valley team that has had a skeleton roster and UT Arlington in the first game without him.

Even with Daniels in the first game against Utah Valley, Cal Baptist lost 65-58, as Daniels had 20 points. Scotty Washington, who averaged 8.7 PPG and saw increased playing time in Daniels’ absence, played one minute in the blowout loss to Grand Canyon last game. He attempted one shot.

In the two head-to-head meetings, Utah Valley had 67 shot attempts at the rim compared to 47 for Cal Baptist. Utah Valley has a shot share on Close Twos of 41.3% and Cal Baptist is at 42%, but the Lancers have allowed a 46.7% shot share against, which is among the highest in the nation.

The Lancers try to run teams off the 3-point line, holding them to a 26.5% 3P Rate, but that just means Utah Valley will get inside, which is really important to me in a neutral venue. The one edge Cal Baptist could have had would be shooting from 3, but Daniels shot 35.4% (51/144) and Washington, if he can’t go tonight, shot 41.1% (51/124).

It is a low total and that sometimes makes it tough to win by margin, but Cap Baptist had .924 and .714 points per possession in the two meetings, while Utah Valley had 1.033 and 1.071.

Pick: Utah Valley -5.5

Boston College Eagles vs. Clemson Tigers (-7, 145.5)

9:30 p.m. ET

The ACC Tournament nightcap features Boston College and Clemson, as BC plays on back-to-back days after knocking off Miami last night. It was a pretty easy win for the Eagles, who opened up a 16-point lead in the first 10 minutes of the game and rode that wave to a 16-point victory.

Clemson won the first meeting between these teams, but there was literally a big absence for BC. That was the only game of the year that 7-foot C Quinten Post missed. Post has averaged 30 points and 8.1 rebounds on the season and he was out for that game after scoring zero points in 26 minutes in the previous game against Syracuse.

Credit to Boston College, as they still scored 78 points, but they allowed 89, as PJ Hall had 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting, as he went 6-for-6 at the rim. Hall is a terrific player, but he’ll be tested more down in the block with Post back on the floor.

The Tigers defense disappeared a bit late in the year, as Syracuse had 1.135 PPP and Wake Forest had 1.198. Maybe they can rally here in the tourney, but I do like that BC has played a game and I also like fading Brad Brownell at this time of year. Clemson has never won the ACC Tournament and Brownell is 3-6 in the NCAA Tournament and 4-4 in the NIT.

In terms of the matchup here, both teams have a lot of similar stats across the board. Neither team forces a lot of turnovers and both teams take care of the basketball. I don’t really see a 7-point gap here, especially with BC getting their legs under them in a blowout last night.

Pick: Boston College +7

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