The results of Tuesday's Big East and Big 12 matchups will go a long way in determining the regular season champions. Read on for our college basketball best bets for Tuesday based on the top NCAAB odds.
The Marquette Golden Eagles can take a massive step towards a regular season Big East championship with a road win at Creighton, as they would maintain a one-game lead over Providence and Xavier. Elsewhere, Texas looks to keep pace with Kansas atop the Big 12 standings when hosting Iowa State.
Here are our college basketball best bets for Tuesday (odds via DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, PointsBet, and BetMGM; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
Check out our top college basketball picks and our best March Madness betting sites.
Tuesday's college basketball schedule a nd odds
(odds via DraftKings)
- Baylor (-2) vs. Kansas State
- Tennessee vs. Texas A&M (-1)
- Marquette vs. Creighton (-5.5)
- Indiana vs. Michigan State (-3.5)
Check out our best March Madness odds and Wooden Award odds.
College basketball best bets for Tuesday
- Spread: Utah State -4.5 (-110 via BetMGM) vs. Wyoming ???
- Moneyline: Creighton ML vs. Marquette (-225 via PointsBet) ?????
- Total: Georgia-Arkansas Under 143.5 (-110 via DraftKings) ???
- Moneyline: Virginia Tech (-126 via FanDuel) vs. Miami ???
College basketball top picks
Things have gone from bad to worse for Jeff Linder's Wyoming Cowboys, who reside in last place in the Mountain West (3-11) just one year after making a First Four appe arance. Linder dismissed two USC and one UCLA transfer from the team and has primarily relied on seven players the last two games. The Cowboys' leading scorer, point guard Hunter Maldonado (14.7 points), has played 38-plus minutes in four of the previous five games (four losses in that span) and is receiving little help. The rest of the team is 14-for-69 (20.3%) from 3-point range in three of the losses and shot a combined 10-for-27 from 2-point range in the one loss they did shoot well from the perimeter.
Utah State will look for revenge after two narrow two-point losses last year. This three-star play is because we expect their fifth-ranked 3-point shooting (39.6%) to expose a Wyoming defense that ranks 323rd at defending the perimeter (36.9% allowed).
BetMGM is one of the only sportsbooks one can find Utah State at -4.5 (many others have moved to -5.5) while still paying standard -110 juice.
Creighton's only loss since Jan. 14 (spanning 10 games) is a double-overtime war on the road against a Providence team that has now won 36 of its last 37 home games. The Bluejays opened Big East play with an 11-point road loss at Marquette, but that was their sixth consecutive loss and was center Ryan Kalkbrenner's third straight missed game.
Since then, Creighton is 8-0 at home, with just two wins coming by fewer than six points. Marquette has been carving up Big East defenses in the paint, shooting a league-best 58.3% inside the arc. However, that game plan changes with a healthy Kalkbrenner, one of the best rim protectors in the country. This is a solid five-star play, as he anchors a defense that allows a league-low 43.7% shooting inside the arc.
Georgia ranks 10th in the SEC in scoring at 69.5 points per game and has the second-worst assist differential (-2.8 in the league). Th us, a lack of ball movement and finding open shooters will be the Bulldogs' downfall against a Razorbacks defense that has allowed just 63 points per game over the last nine games. Arkansas' defensive success is largely due to its ability to run teams off the 3-point line, as the team ranks in the top 15 in the fewest 3-point attempts allowed per field goal attempt. This is a three-star play, as Georgia has been limited to 60.8 points per game in its last five losses, which doesn't bode well for the Bulldogs' chances of offensive success in a game the Razorbacks project to win.
DraftKings provides the best value for Under backers, the only sportsbook with a total as high as 143.5 while still charging standard -110 juice.
This game is a stark contrast of offensive styles. Virginia Tech is one of the best teams in the country at moving without the ball under Mike Young's system, while Miami head coach Jim Larranaga preaches finding the defensive mismatches and letting his bevy of playmakers attack in space. Though the Hurricanes have been largely successful playing that way this year, we are backing the home team that runs complex sets.
Even in home losses earlier in the season, the Hokies held NC State and Clemson, two teams that rank in the league's top half in scoring, to a combined 10 points under its season scoring averages. But since a seven-game losing streak, it has been all about the offense for Virginia Tech, who has averaged 79.8 points per game in the eight games since (5-3 in that span). We are backing the oddsmakers who seem to know what they're doing here, favoring a team that is 6-10 in ACC play over a top-13 team.
College basketball best bets made 2/21/2023 at 7:38 a.m. ET.
Here are our best March Madness betting sites:
- 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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