College Basketball Best Bets Today:

We’ve got 126 Division I teams in action against fellow Division I teams, plus seven more D-I squads against lower-division opponents. It is a busy college hoops card for Thanksgiving Eve, as those early-season tournaments keep rolling along.

We’ve been treated to some excellent games over the first two days of this week and we have similar potential with the slate today. As for me, regardless of the excitement level of the game, I’m just looking to pick out the ones I think have the best wagering opportunities.

 

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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.

South Carolina Gamecocks (-5, 140.5) vs. Virginia Tech Hokies

6 p.m. ET

More action in Fort Myers today, as the Gamecocks and Hokies get together for a little SEC/ACC Showdown. I’m actually really annoyed that I didn’t take Xavier against South Carolina on Monday, but that game confirmed some of my suspicions about the Gamecocks.

Life without Meechie Johnson is definitely a task on offense. They’ve played two top-60 teams and have scored .989 and .926 points per possession. Collin Murray-Boyles is a great player and Zachary Davis has shined offensively in limited work, but this is a team that doesn’t have that guy who can create something at the end of the shot clock.

The Gamecocks are also shooting just 31.4% from 3 to open the season and went 4-of-17 in the unfamiliar setting on Monday. I also think this is a good opportunity for the Gamecocks to slow down. Lamont Paris’s team was 323rd in adjusted tempo two seasons ago in his first year with South Carolina and 351st last season. Virginia Tech has no urgency to their game under Mike Young.

The Hokies are also missing a ton of last season’s production. Hunter Cattoor and Sean Pedulla were the team’s leaders and they’re gone. MJ Collins was a very inefficient player, but he played a ton and he’s now at Vandy. While he might be addition by subtraction, Tyler Nickel shot nearly 40% from 3 and he’s also at Vandy now. Lynn Kidd, a 6-foot-10 interior force who was a 67% shooter on 2s, is at Miami.

With the mass exodus, the Hokies are struggling on offense. After scoring 1.170 and 1.288 points per possession against Delaware State and USC Upstate, VT has played four top-200 teams. They have .915, .873, .926, and .901 PPP. I can’t imagine they’ll fare all that well against SC here in a neutral setting.

Pick: Under 140.5

Cal State Northridge Matadors at Montana Grizzlies (-1, 153.5)

9 p.m. ET

The Championship Game of the Stew Morrill Classic features Cal State Northridge and Montana. It will be on the Grizzlies’ home floor in Missoula and it looks like a tough task for the home team.

Northridge has won 89-79 and 89-60 in the two games of this tournament over Utah Tech and Denver. The Matadors have reeled off five in a row, four of them against Division I opponents. Admittedly, they are all teams that rank in the 300s per Torvik’s rankings. Nevertheless, the Matadors have been a team I have liked a lot during Andy Newman’s tenure.

They scored 89 points against Denver and only made two 3s. The Matadors get to the rim a lot and force teams into jump shots on defense. Opponents are actually shooting a 3 on 58.1% of their shot attempts against CSUN to this point. Well, Montana is shooting 25.9% from 3. This does not project to be a good distance shooting team.

Last year’s Grizzlies shot nearly 36% from 3, but 40% shooters Dischon Thomas and Josh Vazquez exhausted their eligibility. Aanen Moody shot 38.2% from 3 and also ran out of eligibility. Leading passer Brandon Whitney shot 37%, but only took 30 3-pointers. Most of the returnees were inefficient shooters. Transfers Joe Pridgen (33.1%, 3 schools) and Austin Patterson (38.4%, 2 schools) might fill the void, but not enough.

It is a third game in four days for CSUN, but they had yesterday off and beat Denver by 29 the night before, so I think they’re plenty fresh enough.

Pick: Cal State Northridge +1

Cal Baptist Lancers (-6.5, 152.5) at Fresno State Bulldogs

Midnight ET

Cal Baptist and Fresno State are slated for the final game of the night, which will be at the Acrisure Holiday Invitational in Palm Springs. Except for a 3-for-22 performance from 3 against Northern Colorado, Cal Baptist has been an offensive juggernaut so far this season. The Lancers have scored at least 1.1 points per possession in all but two games and had 1.037 in the other one, a close loss to a comparable foe in UC Riverside.

Fresno State is having some issues on offense under first-year head coach Vance Walberg, the innovator of the dribble drive offense. The Bulldogs had 1.181 PPP against Prairie View A&M and have a three-point win over Long Beach State as two of their better performances of the season. Long Beach State is one of the worst teams in the nation so far and Prairie View A&M will be one of the worst all season.

Rick Croy is a solid head coach and I think he’ll be able to pick apart the Fresno defense, which has been okay,  but they’ve allowed 91 and 84 points against the two best offensive teams that they’ve played – UC Santa Barbara and Washington State. 

Cal Baptist’s issues are all on the defensive end, but mostly because opponents are shooting 39.3% from 3. Thus far, Fresno State is only shooting 26.8% from 3. This is a major gap in pace between the two teams, but Fresno State’s style likely pushes the Lancers to play a little quicker. As the more efficient team on offense, I think that gives them a great chance to cover here.

Pick: Cal Baptist -6.5

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