College Basketball Handicapping Articles

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 2/16/2018
by Alan Matthews - 2/15/2018

Saint Louis hasn't made an NCAA Tournament since 2014 and probably wasn't going to this year under second-year coach Travis Ford, although the Billikens are much improved. Part of that is due to freshman guard Jordan Goodwin, who was averaging 11.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists - he had the school's first-ever triple-double not long ago. Alas, Goodwin's season is now over as he has been found in violation of school policy related to the university's Title IX investigation. Long story short, some women accused four players of sexual assault in September.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 2/15/2018
by Alan Matthews - 2/14/2018

I mentioned the other day that I was about 100 percent sure there would be at least one ACC head coaching opening this offseason, coming at Pittsburgh. I feel about as confident there will be at least two in the SEC. Ole Miss already is looking as the school and Coach Andy Kennedy have agreed to part ways after the season. Not sure Ole Miss can do better as Kennedy is the winningest coach in school history and led the Rebels to two NCAA Tournaments and two NIT Final Fours. Meanwhile, it's now clear that Georgia will miss the NCAA Tournament as the Dawgs are in a free-fall, and the school is expected to fire Mark Fox. Two names you already here at UGA are Tom Crean and Thad Matta. Both would be an improvement.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 2/13/2018
by Alan Matthews - 2/12/2018

Why is it that we talk coaches on the hot seat in college football almost every week but rarely in college basketball? Yes, I know there are about 350 NCAA basketball teams, but I'm sticking solely to the Power 5 conferences - one could argue there are seven in hoops if you include the Big East and American Athletic Conference. Anyways, I do believe there will be one opening for sure in the ACC this offseason: at Pittsburgh. Have you seen how far that program has fallen under second-year coach Kevin Stallings? The Panthers are 0-13 in the ACC and generally are being blown out nightly.

Expert NCAA Hoops Handicapping: National Championship Contenders from Top 10
by Trevor Whenham - 2/9/2018

This is a very odd year in college basketball. By this time most years we have a group of teams we really like, and it feels like a battle of the titans. This year it's more like there are a bunch of teams that might be alright, and it's just a matter of which one will stand up the longest before tripping and falling on their faces. There is no great team this year, and there may not even be many really good ones. What we will do now, though, is look at the Top 10 teams heading into this week to see whether they look like true contenders or not. (Odds to win the National Championship are from Bovada)

College Basketball Betting Advice: Under-the-Radar Teams to Bet On
by Trevor Whenham - 2/9/2018

This is the time of year when a lot of bettors start paying attention to college basketball for the first time this season. All football action is finished up, baseball hasn't started yet, and the NBA and NHL are in their dog days before the stretch drives begin, so this is a bit of a sweet spot for college hoops. The postseason is only a month away, and that's when things get exciting.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 2/9/2018
by Alan Matthews - 2/8/2018

The University of Nebraska is an NCAA Tournament bubble team, although likely on the right side of that bubble with an 18-8 overall record and 9-4 in the Big Ten. The Huskers also have been a bettors' best friend thus far in the 2017-18 season as they lead the country with 18 against the spread victories against just six ATS losses. Nebraska has covered every single Big Ten game but a 64-63 win over Illinois as a 4.5-point favorite. Not sure the NCAA Tournament selection committee will care about ATS statistics, but you should.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 2/8/2018
by Alan Matthews - 2/7/2018

The NCAA almost never reverses one of its decision on appeal, so Auburn fans can't possibly be surprised that the organization has denied the school's appeal of a ruling declaring center Austin Wiley ineligible for the rest of the season. The NCAA had announced on Jan. 11 that Wiley won't be eligible until 2018-19 because of some violations surrounding his recruitment. He was a five-star recruit who averaged 8.8 points per game as a freshman last season.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 2/5/2018
by Alan Matthews - 2/5/2018

How wild was Saturday around college basketball? There were upsets from coast to coast with Duke being shocked in New York by a bad St. John's team that is winless in the Big East and Arizona falling on a buzzer-beater in Seattle to Washington. Kentucky and Kansas also lost to unranked teams. The Jayhawks had dropped just three games at their home Allen Fieldhouse in the previous five seasons combined but have dropped three there this season. Their streak of 13 straight regular-season conference titles is far from a sure thing to continue.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 2/2/2018
by Alan Matthews - 2/1/2018

Things are not going well right now at defending National Champion North Carolina. On Monday, the school suspended freshman guard Jalek Felton, the nephew of former Heels star guard Raymond Felton, indefinitely. Jalek Felton was suspended by the university, not the basketball program, which sounds rather ominous. Felton wasn't playing much yet but was a Top 30 recruit in the country.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 2/1/2018
by Alan Matthews - 1/31/2018

Now that we are into February, already the last full month of regular-season action in college basketball, let's look at some updated futures odds from 5Dimes to cut down the nets on the first Monday of April at the Alamodome in San Antonio. I believe that Duke is the most talented team in the country - freshman Marvin Bagley III is ridiculous - and the Blue Devils are +500 favorites. They are followed by Michigan State (+550), which Duke beat at the beginning of the season, Villanova (+550), Virginia (+805) and Purdue (+805). UVA has been arguably the most impressive team so far, but I believe is a fraud come tournament time per usual because the Cavs can't score. My Final Four right now would be Duke, Villanova, Arizona (+2000) and Cincinnati (+3000).

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 1/30/2018
by Alan Matthews - 1/29/2018

It's looking more and more like that national title UConn won under Coach Kevin Ollie in 2014 was a fluke and simply on the back of players (specifically Shabazz Napier) recruited by former coach Jim Calhoun. Things have gone downhill for the program since. It missed the Big Dance last year with a 16-17 record and will this year too barring an unlikely run to the AAC Tournament title. Now comes word that the NCAA is investigating Connecticut for recruiting violations.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 1/25/2018
by Alan Matthews - 1/24/2018

SMU has made the NCAA Tournament in two of the past three seasons after not doing so since 1993, but the Mustangs' chances of returning to the Big Dance this March recently got longer as junior guard Jarrey Foster has been ruled out for the year due to a partially torn ACL. The team was originally hoping it was a knee sprain, and at least it's only partially torn as Foster should thus be good to go when the 2018-19 season starts. Foster was SMU's second-leading scorer and leading rebounder, averaging 13.2 points and 5.9 rebounds. With Foster, the Mustangs had impressive wins over ranked teams Arizona, USC and Wichita State this season. SMU is at UConn on Thursday.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 1/23/2018
by Alan Matthews - 1/22/2018

TCU hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since the 1977-98 season, but this year's Horned Frogs should get there under second-year coach Jamie Dixon, although they have faded a bit since starting 12-0. Dixon got some bad news late last week in that starting point guard Jaylen Fisher will miss the rest of the season with a meniscus tear. Fisher, a sophomore, was averaging 12.1 points and 5.4 assists. The main ball-handling duties will now be held by junior Alex Robinson, and all he did was dish out 17 assists in the first game post-Fisher injury. Sophomore Desmond Bane has taken Fisher's starting spot. The Frogs are +12500 at BetOnline to win the national title. Yeah, can't recommend that wager.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 1/16/2018
by Alan Matthews - 1/15/2018

Kansas got some good news over the weekend when the NCAA cleared heralded freshman big man Silvio De Sousa to play. The 6-foot-9, 220-pound Angola native was a four-star recruit (No. 28 in the ESPN 100) but hadn't been eligible yet as De Sousa was originally a Class of 2018 prospect who opted to reclassify to 2017 and arrived on campus in late December. The NCAA doesn't exactly move at a speedy pace when working, so it took this long for him to receive clearance. He played four minutes in KU's 73-72 win over Kansas State on Saturday.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 1/13/2018
by Alan Matthews - 1/12/2018

In my first 3-Point Play story of the year for Tuesday's games, one that I previewed was Georgetown at St. John's - the Hoyas were 8-point underdogs, and I recommended taking the points. GU won 69-66 in Patrick Ewing's return to Madison Square Garden. One key St. John's player missed that game and hadn't played since Nov. 27: sophomore guard Marcus LoVett, the Red Storm's second-leading scorer at 14.9 ppg. Now he won't play again this season as the team made the decision to shut him down and focus on rehab. Just one more reason to fade the Johnnies, who are the only team without a Big East win.

College Basketball Expert Handicapping: Duke Blue Devils
by Trevor Whenham - 1/11/2018

As seems to be the case often in recent years, Duke is a tough team to judge right now in college basketball. They entered the season ranked first overall by a solid margin, and they are still the co-favorites alongside Michigan State to win the NCAA title at +500 according to BetOnline. But they have lost twice and have slid all the way to seventh in the latest poll. They have ridiculous amounts of talent - they should have four first-rounders in next year's NBA Draft - and they obviously couldn't be any better coached.

NCAA Basketball Expert Betting Advice: Three Interesting Opening Lines 1/9/2018
by Alan Matthews - 1/8/2018

Don't know about you, but I really started getting into college basketball when the Big East was in its heyday, and by that I mean in the mid-1980s when superstars like Georgetown's Patrick Ewing and St. John's Chris Mullin were facing off. Ewing is on a short list of greatest NCAA players ever, and Mullin is easily the best player in St. John's history and probably only behind Ewing among the top Big East players. That was back when guys stayed in school all four years. Ewing and Mullin were also on the legendary 1992 USA Olympic Dream Team. The two Hall of Famers face off as coaches for the first time Tuesday night.

College Basketball National Championship Expert Betting Predictions with Odds
by Trevor Whenham - 1/5/2018

College football is one game away from coming to an end, which means that a lot of bettor attention will shift towards college basketball next week - and a whole lot more will in a month when the NFL season ends. It's a good time , then, to take a look for any potential futures betting value before more public eyes turn this way. Here's a look at some of the top contenders to cut down the nets at the Final Four (odds to win the NCAA Championship are from BetOnline)

Expert College Basketball Betting Advice: Vulnerable Top Teams
by Trevor Whenham - 12/15/2017

As we head into conference play in college basketball, there are generally a team or a small group of teams in most conferences that are viewed as the clear favorites to win the conference. And the betting public is often pretty good at finding these winners. To keep things interesting, though, our goal here is to look at some of those top conference contenders to see which ones could be vulnerable and don't therefore offer as much value for bettors as some people might think. Here are four such giants that could hit a rough patch and be caught and passed by a conference rival. (Posted odds are odds to win the national title)

College Basketball Betting Help: Teams that Could Surprise in Conference Play
by Trevor Whenham - 12/15/2017

Conference play has started with a trickle so far in college basketball, but after Christmas it will start in earnest. In almost every conference there is one team, or a small group of teams, that are likely to win the regular-season conference crown. That doesn't interest us at this point. What is more interesting, though, is to find teams at fatter odds that could potentially disrupt their conference races and deliver an upset win. We are looking for live long shots.