College Basketball Handicapping Articles

College Basketball Picks: Big Monday Odds and Predictions
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 2/7/2011

The Backyard Brawl rivalry gets plenty of attention come football season, but the hardwood version has been just as competitive over the course of the past decade. Just like any other good rivalry, rankings and records mean very little -- especially when the team with the higher ranking and better record is on the road. They say home-court advantage can be worth nearly four points in college basketball, and in the Backyard Brawl it may be worth even more.

College Basketball Betting: One Chaotic Season
by T.O. Whenham - 2/3/2011

College basketball is in total chaos right now. Part of what makes the sport so great is that there is always chaos, but this year is way beyond normal. Last weekend is a perfect example -- there were 20 games featuring at least one ranked team over the weekend, and the college basketball point spread was covered in 14 of those games by the unranked team or the lower ranked team if both teams were ranked. Eleven of those lesser teams won outright, so betting the moneyline on all the underdogs would have been wildly profitable.

College Basketball Picks: Big Monday Odds and Predictions
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 1/31/2011

Louisville has not made things easy on itself lately. Three of its last four wins have been by one point. Things will not be any easier for Louisville when it travels to our nation’s capital to take on Georgetown on Big Monday. Louisville needed double overtime to get past Connecticut on Saturday and last second baskets to defeat West Virginia and Marquette in the past two weeks.

College Basketball Picks: Purdue at Ohio State Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/25/2011

We are down to two unbeaten teams left in college basketball – you may recall I mostly called that Texas upset of Kansas on Saturday – with Ohio State and San Diego State. And in the span of 24 hours or so we could have no undefeated teams left with the Buckeyes and Aztecs facing Top 15-ranked conference foes on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Here we look at No. 12 Purdue vs. No. 1 Ohio State tonight in Columbus.

College Basketball Picks: Big Monday Odds and Predictions
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 1/24/2011

If not for a head-scratching loss in Pittsburgh to a bipolar Tennessee squad, we would be talking about Pitt as the undisputed No. 1 team in the land. Instead they have to settle for being the No. 4 team in the country and cream of the crop in the Big East, the best basketball conference in the country.

College Basketball Picks: Texas at Kansas Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/21/2011

Saturday is easily the best day of the season thus far in college basketball. How good? There are five games matching Top 25 teams on the day, and for this story I didn’t even go with No. 1 Ohio State at No. 22 Illinois, in which the Buckeyes could easily suffer their first loss. I also passed on No. 7 Villanova at No. 3 Syracuse even though both teams could suffer a second straight loss to a Big East Top 10 foe, and in which the Orange could set an NCAA record for attendance in an on-campus game. Nope, the game of the day is No. 11 Texas at No. 2 Kansas because of the No. 70.

College Basketball Odds: Under-the-Radar Teams With Value
by T.O. Whenham - 1/20/2011

Most of the media coverage -- and therefore the public attention -- in college basketball is focused on the big-name teams. That means that people only really care about the teams that are ranked, those with long histories of success, and the teams that have the big wins and flashy players that the media loves. Those teams are what you hear about most, but often times the most attractive betting teams are ones that people aren’t paying any attention to at all.

College Basketball Picks: Betting Teams to Avoid
by T.O. Whenham - 1/20/2011

College basketball media, and therefore the betting public, are seduced by big names -- high profile teams, ranked mid-majors, and players sure to be heading to the NBA. Those stories may be the most compelling ones for casual fans, but those teams are often not nearly as kind to bettors as you might think they would be based on the amount of attention they could get. Here’s a look at eight teams that are not nearly living up to their reputations this year from a betting perspective. Avoid these teams with your college basketball picks at all costs.

College Basketball Picks: San Diego State at New Mexico Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/14/2011

It’s not too often that we preview a Mountain West Conference basketball game here at Doc’s, but take a look at the MWC this year and you could say it’s better at the top than both the Pac-10 and SEC. Thus, today we bring you San Diego State vs. New Mexico, as the No. 6 Aztecs are one of four remaining unbeaten teams in the country. And just like I (mostly) predicted on Wednesday with Duke against Florida State, SDSU will suffer its first loss of the season.

College Basketball Handicapping: Who Will Be Last Unbeaten?
by T.O. Whenham - 1/13/2011

Timing is everything in sports betting. It’s apparently also pretty important in writing. I was about to sit down and write this article -- about which undefeated team would be the last standing -- yesterday, but for a number of minor reasons I wrote others instead and left this one until today. Good thing. The point I was going to make was that Duke was, by a solid margin, the best positioned of the five teams to survive to the end without a loss. Oops.

College Basketball Rankings: The Mid-Majors
by T.O. Whenham - 1/12/2011

Last week I ranked the major conferences in college basketball, so it only makes sense that I rank the best of the rest this week. Before we look at the top mid-majors in the country, though, let’s quickly review the majors -- the Big East and Big Ten were neck and neck at the top, with the Big 12 close behind and then a big gap down to the ACC, the SEC, and the truly awful Pac-10.

College Basketball Picks: Duke at Florida State Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/12/2011

Last week when I was looking ahead in college basketball, I very much thought that Wednesday night’s game was a huge potential trap for top-ranked Duke and likely the Blue Devils’ first loss of the season. I still think that’s possible, but not as strongly as I used to thanks to Florida State’s recent play.

Ranking the College Basketball Conferences
by T.O. Whenham - 1/7/2011

We are, in round numbers, halfway through the college basketball season. The nonconference schedule has mostly been played out, and now we get to enjoy the serious business of conference play. This transitional time is a perfect time to stand back and take a look at how the six major conferences stack up. The criteria here are loose -- betting performance, performance against overall expectations, general strength, and a bit of my personal bias. Here they are, from top to bottom:

College Basketball Handicapping: Conference Play Adjustments
by T.O. Whenham - 1/7/2011

We are at an exciting time in college basketball -- the start of the conference season. This is where teams really get serious, and the action gets exciting -- more exciting than it already has been. For college basketball handicappers it is a time to make some serious profit. To do so, though, they have to make some adjustments from how they bet games in the nonconference season. The structure of conference play means that what works in November might not work as well in January.

Free College Basketball Picks and Odds: UConn at Notre Dame
by Alan Matthews - 1/4/2011

Notre Dame (12-2) opened Big East play last Wednesday with a 69-55 home upset of Georgetown but then fell to No. 5 Syracuse at the Orange’s place on New Year’s Day, 70-58. In that loss, the Irish committed 15 turnovers, just one shy of their season high, and got to the foul line just seven times. Free throws are a big part of what the Irish do as they have had eight games this season of scoring at least 20 points from the foul line.

Cotton Bowl Predictions: Texas A&M Aggies vs. LSU Tigers Odds and Picks
by T.O. Whenham - 1/4/2011

The Cotton Bowl isn’t a BCS game, but it is played after all but one of them, and the matchup - Texas A&M (9-3) and LSU (10-2) -- is more interesting and exciting than a couple of games that are in the BCS. It takes place at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Friday, Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. EST. Neither of these teams are a stranger to this game -- The Aggies are playing for their 12th time, and the Tigers for their fifth. The teams haven’t played each other since 1995, but the Aggies have a five-game winning streak going in head-to-head action.

College Basketball Betting: Teams Better Than Expected
by T.O. Whenham - 12/21/2010

Conference play is about to get under way in college basketball, and the calendar is about to turn. That means that while we don’t know everything about teams and there will still be a ton of surprises between now and early April when the nets are cut down, we do have a much better sense of how good or bad teams are.

College Basketball Picks: USC at Kansas Odds and Betting Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 12/17/2010

So why did I pick USC at Kansas as the game of the day in college basketball on Saturday over, say, Kansas State-Florida or Texas-North Carolina? Not so much for the game itself, as the Jayhawks most certainly will win. But it’s because this is the debut of possibly the best freshman in the land in Josh Selby for KU.

College Basketball Picks: Odds and Predictions for Marquee Saturday Games
by Robert Ferringo - 12/10/2010

Below are some odds and predictions for marquee Saturday games. It is also a list of what you should be watching for seven hours on Saturday if, you know, you don’t have any family or friends, are a raging gambling addict like myself, and would rather spend your day making college basketball picks than trolling the mall looking for a (robot) baby that acts just like own baby:

College Basketball Picks: Jimmy V Classic Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 12/7/2010

We have a terrific quartet of teams for this year’s Jimmy V Classic on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden as No. 4 Kansas faces No. 13 Memphis in the opener and No. 7 Michigan State faces No. 8 Syracuse in the nightcap. Certainly it wouldn’t be a surprise at all to see one or more of these teams in the Final Four this spring.