There is plenty of rare daytime college basketball action on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, and we have you covered with our daily college basketball player props and best bets for Monday based on the best college basketball odds.
Thirteen of today's 31 college basketball games tip off before 6 p.m. ET, including games from the Big Ten and Big East and three early Ivy League games. It will also be interesting to see what the new AP top 25 looks like after last week's numerous upsets, as seven of the top 10 teams lost at least one game last week (No. 2 Houston dropped two games to Iowa State and TCU).
Here are our college basketball player props and best bets for Monday (odds via our best March Madness betting sites; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
Monday's college basketball schedule and odds
(Odds via DraftKings)
- Ohio State (-1) vs. Michigan
- Pennsylvania vs. Cornell (-8.5)
- Villanova vs. Marquette (-6)
- Iowa vs. Minnesota (-2)
- Notre Dame vs. Boston College (-8)
Monday's college basketball best bets
- Mark Armstrong (Villanova) Under 7.5 points vs. Marquette (+105 via DraftKings) ????
- Tony Perkins (Iowa) Over 0.5 3-pointers made vs. Minnesota (-130 via DraftKings) ????
- Princeton -17.5 vs. Dartmouth (-110 via Caesars, bet365) ???
- Stetson -9.5 vs. Chicago State (-110 via BetMGM) ???
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Monday's college basketball player props
If we had seen an Under of 7.5 points for Mark Armstrong two weeks ago, we would have jumped at the opportunity to get plus-money odds, as he stayed under this projected total in eight of the first 12 games of the season.
However, back-to-back games of 14-plus points have caused oddsmakers to look more optimistically at Armstrong's projected output, but they are not factoring in the level of competition, as St. John's and DePaul each rank in the bottom four of the Big East in scoring defense. However, today Armstrong faces a Marquette defense that ranks in the top five (67.3 points per game allowed), and one that menaces opponents into turnovers at the sixth-highest rate in Division I.
Armstrong scored nine total points in two regular-season meetings as a freshman against Marquette last year, and his 21.9 turnover rate comp ared to a 14.1 assist rate this season, per KenPom, means that head coach Kyle Neptune could limit his minutes in favor of the more veteran TJ Bamba. Armstrong has also committed three or more fouls in the last two games, and drawing the primary defensive assignment against reigning Big East Player of the Year, Tyler Kolek, should also sacrifice his offense and lower his ceiling to score points.
bet365 offers slightly worse +100 odds for this wager, so we are placing this bet at DraftKings for the best value.
Iowa leads the Big Ten in scoring (and ranks sixth nationally) at 87.1 points per game and gets 25.8% of that scoring from 3-pointers. Thus, it is not a big ask at a relatively low price for point guard Tony Perkins to contribute just one perimeter shot to cash this wager, and the senior, who is averaging 13.9 points per game, is also shooting a respectable 35% from beyond the arc.
Perkins has made at least one 3-pointer in three consecutive games and six of eight, and while he may be gun shy after making just two of eight 3-point attempts against Nebraska, we prefer to look at the positive side of things and are optimistic that the eight attempts means defenses will start sagging off him and dare him to hoist more from deep going forward. Minnesota has allowed Big Ten opponents to shoot 37.5% from beyond the arc, and KenPom projects Iowa for 80 points, so the -130 odds at DraftKings for Perkins to make at least one 3-pointer do not seem so steep in comparison.
Monday's college basketball game picks
When Princeton covered a 13-point spread in an 89-58 blowout win over Harvard in its last game, it improved Ivy League double-digit home favorites to just 35-61 ATS in the previous decade. There are theories that Ivy League games tend not to end in lopsided decisions often because of the familiarity between the coaches. H owever, even though Dave McLaughlin has been head coach of Dartmouth since 2017, his familiarity with Mitch Henderson's scheme at Princeton (head coach of the Tigers since 2012) will not overcome the talent gap between these teams.
Princeton's only loss of the season was a four-point defeat to Saint Joseph's, a game in which it led by nine points. The Tigers' five-out offense is shooting 3-pointers at the sixth-highest rate in the country, is giving opposing defenses fits, and also frees up driving lanes, where Princeton has capitalized to the tune of the seventh-highest 2-point shooting percentage, 59.6%, in the country.
Dartmouth lost by three points in overtime at Jadwin last season and beat the Tigers on its home floor, but the Big Green ranks 314th in D-I experience, which is unusual for an Ivy League squad, and that youth will present issues in this road clash.
This line has droppe d at Caesars and bet365 from an opening number of -18.5 yesterday, but we are not backing off because of that movement, and are instead encouraged by the better number, as the Tigers are -18 or higher at all other shops.
Chicago State seemed on the verge of a special season and looked ready to win more than 11 games for the first time since 2014, especially after a 75-73 road upset of Northwestern spurred a four-game winning streak that brought its record to 7-9. However, the Cougars followed that up with six losses in their next seven games, and something turned in the DePaul game after the Blue Demons switched to a 2-3 zone after falling behind early, which exposed a significant weakness in Chicago State's offense.
Chicago State's preferred style of offense is to spread teams out and identify mismatches to create one-on-one opportunities. The Cougars get 22.7% of their points from the free-throw line (top 36 in the countr y) and 26.6% of their points from 3-point range (273rd-worst), so one can impose their will defensively on them by turning them into a mere jump-shooting team. Chicago State also ranks 316th in assists per field goals made, and Stetson should pull away late, as it is the nation's best free-throw shooting team (82.6%).
This is a three-star play, as Stetson has covered 75% of its home games (9-3-1 ATS) since the start of last season and is 26-14-2 ATS overall in that span. FanDuel is the only other one of our best sportsbooks offering a line of -9.5 (all others are at -10), but it is juiced to -120, unlike BetMGM.
College basketball best bets made Monday at 8:05 a.m. ET
Here are our best March Madness betting sites:
- Caesars Promo Code: SBRBONUS1000 | Read our Caesars Review
- BetMGM Bonus Code: SBRBONUS | Read our BetMGM Review
- bet365 Bonus Code: SBRBONUS | Read our bet365 Review
- BetRivers Promo Code: SBRBONUS | Read our BetRivers Review
- FanDuel Promo Code | Read our FanDuel Review
- DraftKings Promo Code | Read our DraftKings Review
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* Bonuses not applicable in Ontario.
Related pages
- Best Live Betting Sites | Best Sportsbook Promos (U.S. only)