With only three ranked teams in action, our college basketball player props and best bets for Thursday based on the best college basketball odds from our best sports betting apps are dialed in on Wichita State vs. Florida Atlantic and Illinois vs. Michigan.
Thursday's college basketball slate is relatively tame compared to earlier in the week. Only three ranked teams are slated to play, with No. 14 Illinois traveling to face Michigan for a tricky road test. No. 10 Memphis and No. 23 Florida Atlantic are both double-digit home favorites in their respective conference matchups.
With only a select number of marquee matchups on deck, we can really dive into each one of these matchups for any potential value. Fortunately, our homework has led to a couple bets worth making ahead of Thursday's action.
Here are our college basketball p layer props and best bets for Thursday (odds via our best March Madness betting sites; Pick confidence is based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
Thursday's college basketball schedule and odds
(Odds via FanDuel)
- Minnesota vs. Michigan State (-11.5)
- South Florida vs. No. 10 Memphis (-11.5)
- Wichita State vs. No. 23 Florida Atlantic (-14.5)
- No. 14 Illinois (-2.5) vs. Michigan
- Washington vs. California (-1.5)
- Oregon State vs. Utah (-15.5)
- Gonzaga (-11.5) vs. Pepperdine
- Oregon vs. Colorado (-5.5)
- Washington State vs. Stanford (-2.5)
Thursday's college basketball best bets
- Alijah Martin (FAU) Over 12.5 points (-130 via FanDuel) vs. Wichita State ????
- Dug McDaniel (Michigan) Over 14.5 points (-125 via DraftKings) vs. Illinois ?????
Not intended for use in MA
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Thursday's college basketball player props
This is a good bounce-back spot for Florida Atlantic guard Alijah Martin, who scored just four points on 2-of-11 shooting against UAB last time out. Martin went 0-for-6 from distance in his lowest scoring output of the season, but that shouldn't be a problem in this matchup.
Wichita State ranks 336th in the nation in Open 3 Rate, according to ShotQuality. Opponents are getting 35.8% of their scoring production from deep against the Shockers, and the national average is 30.3%. That bodes well for Martin, who leads the team with an average of 6.5 attempts from long range each game.
Martin is -200 at FanDuel to make two 3-pointers, and he's +152 to h it a trio of triples. If he's shooting that well from deep, we like his chances of scoring 13-plus points, especially since Martin has cleared this line in 10 of his 17 games during 2023-24.
In what is one of the stranger storylines of the college basketball season, Michigan guard Dug McDaniel is currently serving a suspension. The caveat is that he's allowed to play home games, but McDaniel isn't playing in road contests due to an academic issue.
This suspension began last Thursday when McDaniel missed Michigan's loss to Maryland and returned to help lead his team to a home victory over Ohio State on Monday. McDaniel scored 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting against the Buckeyes, which would have been enough to clear this mark. But I don't care about that. I care about the fact he played a game-high 39 minutes.
McDaniel's minutes on Monday were a sign the coaching staff is still countin g on him through this drama. That's a good thing, as he's the team's leading scorer with an average of 17.6 points per game. McDaniel has cleared this mark in nine of his 16 matchups during 2023-24.
DraftKings and BetMGM are both offering a scoring prop of 14.5 points, and we only need to pay -125 for the Over. FanDuel has bumped up McDaniel's points prop to 15.5, with the Over valued at -120. That's a sign this line is a bit too low, so let's scoop up this deal ahead of tipoff.
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Offer excludes Ontario.
College basketball best bets made Thursday at 11:25 a.m. ET.
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Related pages
- Best Live Betting Sites | Best Sportsbook Promos (U.S. only)