Conference tournament action gets underway in the ASUN while teams in other conferences gear up for the last week of the regular season. Read on for our college basketball best bets for Monday based on the top NCAAB odds.
Florida Gulf Coast and Queens, along with Bellarmine and North Florida, play their first-round games in the ASUN conference tournament, with the winners advancing to Tuesday's quarterfinal round.
Here are our college basketball best bets for Monday (odds via DraftKings, BetMGM, and PointsBet; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
Check out our top college basketball picks and our best March Madness betting sites.
Monday's college basketball schedule and odds
(odds via DraftKings)
- Baylor (-1.5) vs. Oklahoma State
- West Virginia vs. Iowa State (-4)
- Montana State vs. Eastern Washington (-2.5)
Check out our best March Madness odds and Wooden Award odds.
College basketball best bets for Monday
- Spread: West Virginia +4.5 (-115 via BetMGM) vs. Iowa State ???
- Moneyline: Eastern Washington ML vs. Montana State (-150 via DraftKings) ???
- Total: North Florida-Bellarmine Under 140.5 (-110 via DraftKings) ????
- Upset: Oklahoma State ML (+105 via PointsBet) vs. Baylor ???
College basketball top picks
West Virginia has lost eight of its last nine road games and four of five overall. However, Iowa State has also lost five of six, and its latest loss (61-50 at home to Oklahoma) was its worst offensive performance of the season. With both teams reeling, we are more encouraged by the Mountaineers, who are coming off a near-upset of Kansas at the Phog despite their senior point guard, Kedrian Johnson, committing eight turnovers.
Iowa State is the Big 12's worst free-throw shooting team in league play (67.3%), which should come back to haunt it in a close game.
This is a three-star play as Iowa State is 1-5 straight-up in its last six games decided by six or fewer points, and we trust Bob Huggins' late-game schematics more than Iowa State's T.J. Otzelberger's. We do not mind laying the extra juice at BetMGM, the only sportsbook offering the Mountaineers at +4.5 as opposed to +4.
Eastern Washington had its D-1 leading 18-game winning streak snapped on Saturday at Idaho State, as the Eagles were held to their lowest scoring output (63 points) since Dec. 7.
Montana State is a formidable opponent, winning 14 of 17 league games and nine of its last 10. However, Eastern Washington out-rebounded the Bobcats by 11 in a three-point road victory earlier this season, which helped it overcome 18 turnovers.
In addition, this is a three-star play as the Eagles have the Big Sky's best 3-point defense (31.9% allowed in league play), while Montana State has connected on just 32.7% of its shots beyond the arc.
Eastern Washington has covered eight of 10 games as home favorites and is 12-4-1 against the spread in its 17 league games. Thus, we are backing its Moneyline odds at DraftKings, as all other sportsbooks have drifted higher than the -150 opening number.
North Florida and Bellarmine meet for the second time in four days after the Ospreys won 79-67 on their home floor on Friday to end the regular season. Thus, we expect that familiarity to lead to a lower-scoring rematch, especially since North Florida tends to play more in defensive stalemates the second time facing an opponent.
The following are the differences in the point totals the second time the Ospreys have played an opponent this season: -31, -17, -7, -18, and just once did a rematch (against Stetson) result in a higher-scoring contest.
Thus, this is a confident four-star play, as Bellarmine plays at the 358th-slowest tempo and will likely be scheming to drag this game in the mud, given how outclassed it was on Friday.
Baylor did not miss leading score Keyonte George (16.3 points per game), who played only six minutes in the team's win over Texas before leaving with an ankle injury. George scored just eight points in a 16-point home win over Oklahoma State earlier in the season. Still, he contributed in many other ways, tying for the team lead in rebounds (six) and posting a 5:0 assist-to-turnover ratio, with the rest of the team combining for 13 assists and 11 turnovers.
George's likely absence Monday will allow Mike Boynton's Pokes defense to key on Adam Flagler and LJ Cryer, who combined for 27 points and connected on 6-of-9 3-point attempts in the first meeting.
Oklahoma State has lost four consecutive games (three of which were by double digits), but we expect it to pull the outright upset against a Baylor team that is just 1-3-1 ATS as a road favorite.
College basketball best bets made 2/27/2023 at 6:06 a.m. ET.
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