College Basketball Bets
A nice, round number of college basketball games greets us on Saturday, with 50 games in total. Again, many of them are in a neutral settings with these MTEs that we’ve had throughout the course of the week. These holiday tournaments definitely provide some fascinating data points to use later on in the season and some for right now as well.
Today, we are lacking the marquee matchups that we’ve had throughout the course of the week. Those teams have already put in their time over the last few days and will start to look ahead to the next week’s worth of games. Unfortunately, most of the games are early today, so the pickings are slim for me, given that I try not to look at games until about 5 p.m. ET or later for the purposes of giving readers enough time to check things out.
For more college basketball best bets today, check out Greg Peterson’s daily article.
As always, I want to give a shout-out to Bart Torvik (BartTorvik.com), Erik Haslam (Haslametrics.com), and KenPom, as they provide a lot of great data. This season, we’ve also connected with CBBAnalytics.com to access their data and I’ll be working that into my article. Use promo code VSIN for $30 off at CBB Analytics and find your betting edge.
This article will run Monday-Saturday. Lines will be from DraftKings, as they are widely available to readers. Shop around for the best prices.
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 (DraftKings) and Circa CBB Betting Splits a look for these or any other college basketball games today have your interest.
Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publish.
Albany Great Danes vs. Fordham Rams (-6.5, 138.5)
7:30 p.m. ET
A neutral-site game in Quebec between Albany and Fordham features a couple of teams that should be going in different directions over the course of the season. The Rams made a good hire in Mike Magpayo, who was previously at UC Riverside. It’s been a work in progress this season, as three of Fordham’s wins have come against lower-division opponents, including just a 74-72 win over Franklin Pierce yesterday.
Meanwhile, Albany played Colgate and lost by just a bucket, but it was the first time they’ve lost by fewer than 10 points against a D-I opponent this season. Both of their wins have been against lower-division foes.
Fordham should be able to get to the rim at a higher rate in this game, as the Great Danes have allowed a 46.2% shot share on Close Twos, plus opponents are shooting 60.2% on those types of shots. Neither team has shot the 3-ball well at all, which should magnify the importance of scoring on the interior. D-I opponents have shot 37.9% from 3 against Fordham, but Albany is only shooting 26.1% for the season, so this represents a good chance for some positive regression in that number for the Rams.
Lastly, they appear to have major advantages in the rebounding department on both ends of the floor. This is an Albany team that does not run deep at all, so Fordham has the chance to get them into foul trouble and really put them in a bind.
Pick: Fordham -6.5 (-105)
