Our college basketball player props and best bets for Wednesday based on the best college basketball odds anticipate another wild night in college hoops with many of the top teams on the road.
No. 1 Purdue and No. 2 Houston suffered conference road defeats on Tuesday. The Boilermakers (14-2) dropped to 3-2 in Big Ten play following their 88-72 loss at Nebraska, while Houston (14-1) became the last college basketball team to lose a game with a 57-53 defeat at Iowa State.
If you thought that was fun, Wednesday's slate has seven ranked squads on the road. Of the nine ranked teams in action, six of the games have a spread within five points. So we should expect plenty of drama once again.
Here are our college basketball player props and best bets for Wednesday (odds via our best March Madness betting sites; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
Wednesday's college basketball schedule and odds
(Odds via FanDuel)
- No. 21 Clemson (-1.5) vs. Virginia Tech
- No. 5 Tennessee (-2.5) vs. Mississippi State
- No. 3 Kansas (-7.5) vs. UCF
- No. 7 North Carolina (-3.5) vs. NC State
- UTSA vs. No. 13 Memphis (-19.5)
- No. 15 Wisconsin vs. Ohio State (-2.5)
- No. 4 Connecticut (-4.5) vs. Xavier
- No. 9 Oklahoma vs. TCU (-4.5)
- Butler vs. No. 11 Marquette (-11.5)
Wednesday's college basketball best bets
- Dajuan Harris Jr. (KU) Over 1.5 steals (-140 via ESPN BET) vs. UCF ?????
- UCF +7.5 vs. Kansas (-105 via BetMGM) ????
- Washington State vs. USC Under 147 (-110 via DraftKings) ???
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Wednesday's college basketball player props
After the top two teams went down on Tuesday, No. 3 Kansas (13-1) will look to avoid a similar fate in its first road game of the conference season. The Jayhawks will face a Central Florida (9-4) team playing in its first-ever Big 12 home game after the Knights fell at Kansas State on Saturday.
This game is going to be a bit of a turnover-fest. The Jayhawks rank 164th in the nation with a turnover rate of 17.4%, a problem that was on full display in their close win over TCU during the league opener. Now they face a Knights team that ranks 10th in the country in defensive turnover rate.
But it& #39;s just as much of an issue on the other side of the court. UCF ranks 201st in the country with a turnover rate of 17.9%, allowing opposing teams to generate a steal rate of 11.5%, which ranks 326th. Kansas, meanwhile, has an above-average steal rate of 10.4%.
ESPN BET is the only one of our best sports betting apps to offer props related to turnovers and steals. You should explore all players in this market for Wednesday's game, but we chose to bet on the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.
Kansas point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. had a bad game last time out, recording five turnovers and no steals. We expect him to bounce back in a big way on Wednesday, especially since he had recorded multiple steals in three straight games prior to the league opener.
Wednesday's college basketball game picks
This almost has to be the play after watching both Purdue and Houston struggle on the road last night, right? UCF might not have the same level of college basketball environment as some top programs, but you have to imagine the crowd will be pretty rowdy in the program's first home Big 12 game. It's also a new travel spot for the Jayhawks, who don't usually go that far East for league matchups.
Situation aside, the matchup is working in UCF's favor as well. The Knights have a knack for forcing teams into mistakes and want to push the ball in transition off those turnovers. We watched KU cough up 18 turnovers in a similar matchup against TCU over the weekend.
More than that, UCF ranks 14th in the country in 2-point defense. That's precisely where Kansas wants its production, with big man Hunter Dickinson leading the way inside. The Jayhawks are not a great 3-point shooting team, so they prioritize paint touches and their No. 1-ranked assist rate to put up points.
Despite its No. 3 ranking in the AP Poll, KU's advanced metrics aren't nearly as impressive. This team ranks No. 16 in Kenpom's overall ratings, largely influenced by a 5-8 ATS record. The Jayhawks haven't covered a spread in five of their last six games.
We won't believe they can win by a margin like this on the road until they prove it.
As explained in our Washington State vs. USC prediction, the total for this game has likely adjusted a bit too much. This would be the highest total between these two teams since 2020, as many of the previous meetings have been trading in the 130s.
ShotQuality projects the final score to be 10 points lower than this mark, as both teams are due for some shooting regression. Washington State has not had the best offensive process to date, ranking 258th in spacing and 261st in shot selection. The Cougars are also 283rd in free-throw percentage.
Washington State does a good job of limiting teams from deep and prefers to play at a slower tempo while ranking 280th in pace. This total feels a touch too high based on USC being 12-3 to the Over and has already dropped 1.5 points since betting lines were first released.
At 146.5 or better, the Under is the best play for Wednesday's game featuring Bronny James.
College basketball best bets made Wednesday at 12:55 p.m. ET.
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