College Basketball Handicapping Articles

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.

NCAA Basketball Betting Advice: Against the Spread Studs and Duds
by Trevor Whenham - 12/14/2017

We have made it through much of the nonconference season in college basketball, and some conference games have even been played. Before we get into the heart of conference play after Christmas, though, this is a good time to step back and take a look at the teams that are really treating bettors well and those that are burning cash in bulk. These are not the absolute best and worst betting teams in the country - just the ones that are high profile enough to get the attention of semi-casual sports bettors. Here, then, are the ATS studs and duds in college basketball to this point in the season:

NCAA Basketball Betting Advice: Differences Between Conference and Nonconference Wagering
by Trevor Whenham - 12/6/2017

December marks a very important shift in college basketball from the wild west world of the nonconference schedule to the crucial grind of conference play. And thanks to the quirks of schedule making, that shift is happening earlier than usual this year. It's a very significant shift for players and perhaps even more of a shift for bettors. If you bet conference play in the same way as nonconference play then you are going to struggle to see ideal profits.

Expert College Basketball Betting Advice: Mid-Majors to Watch
by Trevor Whenham - 11/21/2017

Mid-majors in college basketball are teams that typically only get paid any attention once about February rolls around. People first notice them when they might knock major conference teams out of the tournament, and then they really pay attention to them when they are filling out their brackets and looking for first-weekend upsets. In November and December, though, it's rare that a mid-major gets much attention unless they pull off a shocking upset.

NCAA Basketball Betting Advice: Top Teams that are Hard to Handicap
by Trevor Whenham - 11/17/2017

The college basketball season has only just begun. We have had a couple of high-profile games, but for the most part it has been mismatches and glorified scrimmages. It will be a while until we really know anything about any teams. Still, some high-profile teams are easier to get a sense of right now than others. In particular, there are five teams in the Top 25 - Top 15, actually - that are particularly tough to figure out in my eyes.

College Basketball Betting Advice: Underrated NCAA Hoops Teams
by Trevor Whenham - 11/17/2017

The college basketball season is underway, but we are still quite a while away from the time when the casual betting public will pay real attention to the sport. It's a good time, then, for us to take stock of teams and conferences to see where they are at. What we want to focus on today are five teams that aren't going to be picked by anyone to contend in their conferences but which have the potential to be much better than expected. Here are five underrated, under-the-radar college basketball teams:

College Basketball Expert Handicapping: Louisville after Pitino
by Trevor Whenham - 11/17/2017

It was not the offseason that the Louisville Cardinals dreamed of. Or really the last 18 months or so. Scandal has piled upon scandal, so instead of being one of the elite basketball programs in the country getting ready for a new season, they are dealing with change, conflict and uncertainty. Obviously, the firing of Coach Rick Pitino and AD Tom Jurich leaves bettors with all sorts of questions. Is this team going to be able to live up to their potential?

College Basketball Handicapping: Biggest Games on the November Schedule
by Trevor Whenham - 11/16/2017

The first truly great college basketball game of the season occurred on Tuesday when No. 1 Duke and No. 2 Michigan State met for an early determination of NHL supremacy. Showdowns like that, while ultimately not that significant in terms of the determination of a national champion, are part of what makes the nonconference season often so compelling and exciting. That game has really whet the appetite for big games. Here is a look at 10 of the most interesting and significant games between now and the end of November: