Many conference races will be heavily impacted by the results of Sunday's 26-game college basketball slate. Read on for our college basketball best bets for Sunday based on the top NCAAB odds.
In a year when plenty of unranked teams have beaten ranked teams throughout the season, the AP top 25 held serve for the most part Saturday.
Kentucky was the only unranked team to beat a ranked team (No. 10 Tennessee), but the result should not be viewed as too big an upset, given the Volunteers were favored by just 1.5 points at Rupp Arena.
Here are our college basketball best bets for Sunday (odds via BetMGM, Caesars, 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.
Sunday's college basketball schedule and odds
(odds via DraftKings)
- Iowa (-1.5) vs. Northwestern
- UNC vs. NC State (-2.5)
- Oregon vs. Washington State (-1)
Check out our best March Madness odds and Wooden Award odds.
College basketball best bets for Sunday
- Spread: Purdue -12.5 (-110 via PointsBet) vs. Ohio State ????
- First-half spread: Houston vs. Memphis (Off) ???
- Total: Iowa-Northwestern Under 146 (-110 via Caesars) ????
- Upset: Nebraska (+240 via BetMGM) vs. Maryland ???
College basketball top picks
Many have quickly written off Purdue's national championship chances after it lost three of the last four games. But all those losses have been on the road, and Mackey Arena is a different beast, where just one of the Boilermakers' last five Big Ten games has been decided by fewer than 14 points.
Purdue will only go as far as its freshman backcourt tandem of Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith takes it. In its last three losses, Loyer and Smith have combined to shoot 3-for-18 from 3-point range, and the Boilermakers have committed 14 more turnovers than their opponents.
However, the duo combined for 41 points and 6-of-13 shooting from deep in their last home win, and their comfortability of playing at home against an Ohio State team that has covered just two of 15 league games is a big reason we made this a four-star play.
Memphis looked like two completely different teams in its narrow one-point win over UCF. The Tigers led 21-7 after the game's first 20 minutes and scored 44 points at the half, led by point guard Kendric Davis's 10 first-half points. However, he hurt his ankle late in the first half and spent the rest of the game on the bench in crutches, ultimately leading to the Knights limiting the Tigers to 20 second-half points in his absence.
With Davis unlikely to suit up after just two days off, we expect Memphis to get buried in a deep early hole against a Houston team that ranks in the top four nationally in 2-point and 3-point percentage allowed and effective field-goal percentage defense.
One can find Houston as low as 12.5-point favorites at FanDuel, so we would play the first half spread up to -7 when it becomes available.
Before Iowa's last home win against Ohio State, the Hawkeyes were 12-2 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, averaging 89 points per game and shooting 49% from the floor. However, Iowa is just 4-7 on the road, averaging only 69.9 points per game and shooting 41% away from home. It now faces a Northwestern team on the precipice of its second-ever NCAA tournament berth largely because of a defense that ranks second in the Big Ten with 61.9 points per game allowed.
The Over is 12-4 in Iowa's 16 games following a win, but its offensive ceiling will be lowered considerably by a Wildcats team that has cashed the Under in 11 of its 16 home games.
Terrapins head coach Kevin Willard has done a masterful job in his first season at the helm, as Maryland entered the weekend tied for third in the Big Ten standings. However, the Terrapins have won just two of eight games away from home, and their only road league win is against a Minnesota team that is just 1-12 in conference play.
Nebraska's three wins in four games have gone largely under the radar, but its 10-point victory on the road at Rutgers as a 14-point underdog in its last game is especially noteworthy. The Cornhuskers got anything it wanted at the rim, shooting 20-for-27 (74.1%) inside the arc against a Scarlet Knights defense that ranks second in league play in 2-point percentage allowed (46.4%). Nebraska lost by 19 at College Park on Jan. 28, but Maryland was 24-of-26 from the free-throw line in that contest, and the whistle is not typically as friendly on the road.
This is a three-star play for Nebraska to win outright, as it has covered the spread in five of seven games as a home underdog this season. BetMGM is offering great value with +240 odds, as most competitors are lower than +200 on the Cornhuskers.
College basketball best bets made 2/19/2023 at 7:36 a.m. ET.
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- FanDuel: No Sweat First Bet up to $1,000 | Read our FanDuel Review
- Caesars: Earn Up to a $1,250 Bet Credit | Read our Caesars Review
- DraftKings: Bet $5, Get $150 in Bonus Bets | Read our DraftKings Review
- PointsBet: Earn Five Second-Chance Bets Up to $50 Each | Read our PointsBet Review
- BetMGM: Get a Bonus Bet of Up to $1,000 | Read our BetMGM Review
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