College Basketball Bets
Enjoy today, college basketball fans, because you’ll have one game on Saturday and 20 games on Sunday with three days off in between for the Christmas holiday. Obviously we’ll have the NFL and NBA to hold us over, but if CBB is your go-to sport, it will be a light week on that front.
Today features 11 games and only one of them is a 7 p.m. ET tip off. Two are at 6 p.m. It’s an early card as teams play that one last game before getting a few days off. In other words, there isn’t a whole lot to pick from for the 23rd.
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.
Harvard Crimson at St. John’s Red Storm (-25.5, 145.5)
6 p.m. ET
We head to Carnesecca Arena for today’s only pick, as Harvard visits St. John’s. The Crimson looked refreshed and energized with a 28-point win over Holy Cross in their first game in two weeks this past Saturday. Obviously academics come first at the Ivies and the exam period can be a very stressful time for students, let alone athletes, so it was nice to see the Crimson let loose a bit.
They’re stepping up in class in a huge way here, obviously, but this is a pretty healthy number. Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker has been successful slowing down the pace in most games, which might be what his team needs to keep this one close enough to cover. The Red Storm are running at a borderline top-50 tempo this season and are one of the nation’s top teams from an adjusted defensive efficiency standpoint.
But, Harvard is good on the defensive glass and good at shooting 3s and those two things should allow them to stay within the number. St. John’s has gotten to the free throw line a lot by getting the ball inside quite often and Harvard is usually pretty good at playing defense on the interior. It’s a detail-oriented team, as you would expect from a bunch of smart kids, so they don’t foul a lot, stay responsible on defense, and hit enough 3s to contribute some offense.
With Big East play looming and a rare chance for Rick Pitino to look at some of his bench players, I’ll take my chances with the Crimson at a big spread.
Pick: Harvard +25.5 (-115)
