More than half of college basketball's AP top 25 teams are in action on Tuesday, and we offer our top college basketball player props and best bets for Tuesday based on the best college basketball odds.
The newest edition of the AP top 25 was released Monday afternoon, and the biggest headline is that South Carolina (No. 15) went from unranked to ranked for the first time since 2017. The Gamecocks are on a five-game win streak with victories over ranked Kentucky and Tennessee teams in that span, and their 19 wins to this point are the most since the program went 26-11 and made the Final Four in 2017.
The Big 12 leads the country with the most ranked teams (six), and five of those teams are in action on Tuesday, including the only ranked vs. ranked matchup on the day's slate (No. 23 Texas Tech vs. No. 13 Baylor).
Here are our college basketball player props and best be ts for Tuesday (odds via our best March Madness betting sites; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
Tuesday's college basketball best bets
- Pop Isaacs (Texas Tech) Over 18.5 points vs. Baylor (-110 via DraftKings) ????
- Max Abmas (Texas) Over 3.5 3-pointers vs. Iowa State (+120 via bet365) ???
- Houston -20 vs. Oklahoma State (-112 via BetRivers) ????
- Rutgers-Maryland Under 129.5 (-115 via DraftKings) ????
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Tuesday's college basketball schedule and odds
(Odds via Caesars)
- Clemson vs. North Carolina | Spread: North Carolina -7 | Total: 153.5
- Oklahoma State vs. Houston | Spread: Houston -20.5 | Total: 128.5
- Iowa State vs. Texas | Spread: Texas -2 | Total: 139.5
- BYU vs. Oklahoma | Spread: Oklahoma -1.5 | Total: 150.5
- Butler vs. UConn | Spread: UConn -14 | Total: 148
- Texas Tech vs. Baylor | Spread: Baylor -5.5 | Total: 144.5
- Nevada vs. Utah State | Spread: Utah State -5.5 | Total: 149
Tuesday's college basketball player props
Texas Tech guard Pop Isaacs has been on a scoring tear of late, with 19-plus points in seven of the last 10 games and an 18-point game mixed in. In one of the two games he did not surpass this projected total in that span, he faced the best defensive team in the country (Houston). The other was against Kansas State (the No. 3 defense in Big 12 play in adjusted defensive efficiency) when he played just 29 minutes, his lowest in that 10-game stretch.
Isaacs should have little difficulty getting it going against a Baylor defense that ranks eighth or worse in adjusted defensive efficiency, e ffective field goal percentage, and 2-point percentage allowed through eight Big 12 games. Texas Tech beat writer Austin Massey pointed out that Isaacs ranks 21st nationally in points per possession as a pick-and-roll ball handler, and the Bears defense was just torched for 1.10 points per possession last week by a UCF offense that made 14-of-27 3-point attempts, despite connecting on just 32.1% of its perimeter shots overall in league play.
We were tempted to back the Over on Isaacs' 25.5 points + rebounds + assists, but he has gone Under that projected total in four of the previous six games, landing on exactly 25 twice. Thus, we are taking the rebounds and assists out of the equation and are banking on him remaining the scoring machine that he has been since late December.
Using our DraftKings promo code gets you the best value for this wager, as bet365 is juiced slightly higher to -115 for the same number.
Max Abmas has little difficulty making multiple 3-pointers in a game, doing so in 21 of Texas's 22 contests thus far. And while he has only made four or more 3-pointers seven times this year, he is a great value play to do so for the eighth time against a packed-in Iowa State defense that does not allow anything at the rim.
The Cyclones rank first in Haslametrics' near-proximity rate and sixth nationally in the highest percentage of opponents' field goal attempts coming from 3-point range (46.8%). That number increases to 48% when just taking into account Big 12 competition, and considering the Cyclones allow the fifth-most opponents' points from beyond the arc among all Division I teams (39.5%), Abmas should be firing away from deep early and often.
This is a three-star play, as Abmas is making 39.9% of his 3-point attempts this season and has attempted eight or more threes in four of the previous s ix games. DraftKings offers +115 odds for the same wager, so we use our bet365 bonus code: SBRBONUS for the maximum return on this play.
Tuesday's college basketball game picks
Last week, we cashed a play that was a fade of Oklahoma State on the road against Kansas, as the Jayhawks easily covered the spread as 14.5-point favorites in an 83-54 victory despite playing without leading scorer Kevin McCullar (19.7 points per game). We are once again fading the Cowboys as they have the unfortunate task of facing a Houston team on the road that disappointed in Saturday's top 10 matchup against Kansas, and we expect Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson to get the most out of his team off the loss.
Per BartTorvik, the Cougars entered the weekend with the nation's best 2-point percentage defense (41%), and were then exposed by the Jayhawks, allowing 42 points in the paint, their most such points a llowed since 2017. However, we do not expect a similar performance from an Oklahoma State offense that ranks second-to-last in adjusted offensive efficiency and 3-point percentage in league play while also rebounding a Big 12-worst 23.2% of its missed shots.
This should also be a “get right” game for a Houston offense that ranked outside the top 300 in 2-point shooting percentage during a recent five-game winning streak. The Cougars added to those woes with a 16-for-40 performance (40%) inside the arc against Kansas, but the Cowboys are allowing opponents to make a Big 12-worst 57.9% of their shots from 2-point range.
This is a four-star play, as Houston is 8-3-1 ATS as a home favorite this season while covering 60% of its games (12-8 ATS) after a loss under Sampson since 2019.
DraftKings is the only other one of our top sports betting sites that offers a line of -20 (all other competitors are at -20.5), but they charge much more in juice (-122) to back the favorites at the lower number, so make sure to head over to BetRivers to get the best price.
There is no split this season where Rutgers has been more profitable to the Over, according to TeamRankings, and it enters this game having averaged 62.3 points per game over its last three Big Ten road games.
The Scarlet Knights and the Terrapins are the two lowest-scoring teams in the Big Ten (both average 69.5 points per game or fewer) while also ranking in the top three in the conference in scoring defense. We should be in for another rock fight in College Park tonight, with Rutgers ranking worst in Big Ten play in both 2-point and 3-point shooting percentages despite playing at the fastest tempo in the league. Even still, we expect Maryland's preferred tempo to win out, as the Terrapins like to grind games to a halt with the second-slowest tempo among all Big Ten teams.
This is a four-star play, as Maryland head coach Kevin Willard is well-oriented with the Rutgers offense, having held it to 62 points per game in the 13 regular-season matchups that did not go to overtime in his tenure as Seton Hall head coach from 2011-22. And Maryland is coming off a 63-54 loss at Michigan State over the weekend, which is usually good news for Under backers, as the Under is 6-2 following Maryland's eight previous losses this season.
We do not mind paying up slightly in juice to back the Under at DraftKings, as all other competing sportsbooks offer an O/U one-point lower at 128.5.
College basketball best bets made Tuesday at 6:47 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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Related pages
- Best Live Betting Sites | Best Sportsbook Promos (U.S. only)