College Basketball Bets
It is not a busy night in the college basketball world, as there are only nine games on the schedule. We’ve got four games at 7 p.m. ET, one at 9 p.m. ET, three at 10 p.m. ET, and one in Hawaii at Midnight, as the Big West starts conference play. Not a whole lot to pick from, but surely we can find something.
There are only 18 games on Friday before we have a massive Saturday slate with 116 games, so a lot of teams are just gearing up for the weekend and there are some huge, marquee matchups in that mix, so it should be a lot of fun and excitement.
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.
Long Beach State Beach at UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (-12.5, 143.5)
9 p.m. ET
We’ve seen two notable line moves in this game, with the most notable on the total, as it has dropped several points since open. This is the Big West opener for both teams, as Long Beach State has played the 136th-ranked schedule per Torvik and UCSB the 303rd-ranked schedule.
It looks to me like Joe Pasternack is still trying to figure out his team. The Gauchos have a really solid roster overall, but they’ve had some defensive issues, allowing at least 1.055 points per possession or more in their six games against Division I opponents. They’ve been able to be good enough offensively to offset their defensive struggles, but this is a pretty big line here in a game with some familiarity between the two teams.
Admittedly, I don’t love the shot selection for Long Beach State and that is concerning, but this game should be played to around 65 possessions or so and the way that UCSB has been defending would require them to be very efficient on the offensive side of things. They’ve shot 36.6% from 3, which is probably ripe for regression and they’ve allowed opponents to shoot 47.1% on mid-range jumpers and 38.8% on 3s.
Long Beach State only has a shot share on Close Twos of 30.7%, so they’re a jump shot-oriented offense and that’s the area of the floor that the Gauchos have failed to defend this season.
Pick: Long Beach State +12.5 (-105)
