College basketball features a solid slate of games for New Year's Eve, and we have you covered with our daily college basketball player props and best bets for Sunday based on the best college basketball odds.
It's always difficult to gauge what a college basketball team will look like after the holiday break, and Saturday's results reflected that reality.
Notre Dame pounded Virginia by 22 points, Lipscomb upset Florida State on the road, Florida Gulf Coast took down No. 7 Florida Atlantic, while Rutgers narrowly avoided an upset in a one-point victory as a 27.5-point favorite against Stonehill. Elsewhere, Marquette looked as solid as it has all season in a 72-67 home triumph over Creighton, its 20th consecutive home victory to tie the Big East all-time record.
Here are our college basketball player props and best bets for Sunday (odds via our best March Madness b etting sites; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
Sunday's college basketball schedule and odds
(Odds via DraftKings)
- Washington State vs. Colorado (-9)
- Monmouth vs. Oklahoma (-21.5)
- Arizona (-12) vs. Stanford
- Bryant vs. Ole Miss (-12.5)
- Washington vs. Utah (-10)
- Arizona State vs. California (-3.5)
Sunday's college basketball best bets
- KJ Simpson (Colorado) Under 19.5 points vs. Washington State (-115 via DraftKings, bet365) ???
- St. Thomas team total Over 69.5 vs. Kansas City (-120 via DraftKings) ????
- Detroit-Purdue Fort Wayne Over 144.5 (-110 via BetMGM, DraftKings) ????
- Utah -9.5 vs. Washington (-115 via BetMGM) ???
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KJ Simpson has scored 20-plus points in four straight games and five of his previous six. However, this still feels like an inflated line after he recorded 21 points in Friday's win over Washington when the team was playing without Tristan da Silva and Cody Williams, two of its top three leading scorers. Simpson ranks second in the Pac-12 in scoring at 20.0 points per game on an efficient 56.3% shooting from the floor (third in the conference).
Yet we're still making this a three-star play, as Simpson scored 21 points on 12 free-throw attempts during his last game, and the Cougars rank in the top 14 nationally in effective field-goal percentage defense and 2-point percentage allowed.
Big man Eddie Lampkin should enjoy more success, as Washington State held Utah's starting backcourt to two points on Friday while their starting frontcourt combined for 57 of the 80 points. We would take a long look at the Over on Lampkin's total points when that prop becomes available. But for now, we're our choice of DraftKings or bet365 to fade Simpson.
Sunday's college basketball game picks
St. Thomas has been more likely to cash the Over when it's favored since 2020 (14-12-2, 53.8%) as opposed to when it's an underdog (16-25, 39%). The Tommies are coming off a 70-point performance on Friday against North Dakota after torching two non-Division-I teams while averaging 94.5 points per game. The impressive part about their win against North Dakota is that they scored a tidy 1.13 points per possession while only getting to the free-throw line five times. That all came during an outing when the team didn't need to be ultra-aggressive and could limit possessions.
Five of St. Thomas 9;s seven leading scorers are shooting 37% or better from 3-point range, and it faces a Kansas City defense that ranks 270th while allowing 35.1% from beyond the arc. The Roos also don't force turnovers at a high clip (297th) and rank 339th in free throws attempted per field goal attempt. So St. Thomas will likely attempt way more than five free throws on Sunday.
We do not mind paying up a little at DraftKings, as bet365 offers a slightly higher team total of 70.5, albeit at -115 odds to back the Over.
These are two of the few teams playing a second game since the Christmas break. Each squad has enjoyed an opportunity to work out the rust from long layoffs, so we expect a high-scoring game in this matchup.
Jon Coffman's Purdue Fort Wayne team cashed the Under in seven of its nine games on one day of rest in 2022-23. However, the 2023-24 roster returned the 297th-fewest minutes from last season, so we& #39;re comfortable opposing that trend.
The Mastodons are pressing at a high rate this season, which has led to them playing at a top-54 tempo. That's also a significant reason why they turn opponents over on 23.2% of possessions (11th-highest in the country). Those turnovers should lead to easy baskets, and Detroit's defense isn't built to contain the speed and spacing of the Mastodons.
Purdue Fort Wayne has scored 75 or fewer points in two conference games during 2023-24, but it also exploded for 98 points during a 21-point win over Oakland in early December. That's important since Oakland and Detroit are two of the highest zone-usage defenses in the Horizon League, and Purdue Fort Wayne should shred the Titans' zone. The team shoots 3-pointers at a top-25 rate (38.1%).
We're heading to either BetMGM or DraftKings for this wager, as FanDuel charges -115 in juice to back t he Over, while all the other best sportsbooks are posting a total that's a half-point higher at 145.
Washington was given an excellent opportunity to steal a Pac-12 road win on Friday night, with Colorado playing without two of its top three leading scorers. Instead, the Huskies were held to just 38.5% shooting and were outrebounded 49-31 while attempting 11 fewer free throws. Washington now sits outside the top 250 in offensive rebounding percentage allowed, and that's an area Utah can exploit with a mammoth front line of two seven-footers.
Due to the Pac-12's unique scheduling with games on Fridays and Sundays, a big edge goes to the teams that get to stay at home throughout the weekend as opposed to the others that play the second of two road games. Washington did the same Colorado/Utah road trip in 2022-23, and the team was blown out 86-61 in Salt Lake City following a three-point road win in Boulder. The U tes rank in the top 20 in the country in effective field-goal percentage defense and 2-and-3-point percentage allowed. Another bad situational spot for the Huskies should lead to another blowout.
The -115 juice is worth it at BetMGM, as FanDuel charges -118 to lay the same number, and all other competing shops have already gone to -10 or higher.
College basketball best bets made 12/31/2023 at 7:28 a.m. ET
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