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In this article every week, we'll be reviewing some of the top college basketball games and betting picks.
Last week's slate kicked off with a strong start by Lipscomb as they held on against a late Cincinnati surge to cover the 12.5-point spread. Somewhat surprisingly, SIU-Edwardsville charged to an easy win over Northern Illinois, but both teams' offenses were relatively stagnant as the under cashed. The only loss last week came at the hands of Oregon, as they were manhandled by a veteran Missouri group. Lastly, BYU improved their all-time record against Saint John's to 2-7 with a nice win.
Here are some of the top college basketball betting picks. Let me know your thoughts, and follow along the action with me on Twitter @fredetterline. All game times below are Eastern Standard Time. Season record to date: 3-1
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Robert Morris @ West Virginia - 7:00 pm
The 77-mile road trip from Robert Morris' campus in the Pittsburgh suburb of Moon to Morgantown, West Virginia, will be the Colonials' first trip to their nearby opponent since 2010. Coach Andy Toole's team began their 2020-2021 season with an easy 18-point win over Division II Point Park University, a game which was hastily scheduled because a previous opponent backed out due to COVID-19. The Colonials are led by preseason All-Horizon League Second Team forward AJ Bramah, a bruising Organizational Leadership major who dominates the post despite his 6-foot-7 frame. Robert Morris will be competing for their first year in the Horizon League, a conference which much better fits their geographical fit, as well as their financial fit as the Colonials outspent the next highest spending program by 30%. This program has grown in the years since they defeated Kentucky in a 2013 opening-round NIT game, and may yet be a pesky competitor as the newcomer to their conference. The Colonials will hope to fair better than the 2010 game between these teams, that ended in a lopsided 82-49 affair.
West Virginia's home opener will be an odd site for Coach Bob Huggins' team as the arena will be mostly empty in the 50th year of playing at the West Virginia Coliseum. The Mountaineers have kicked the season off with a strong 4-1 nonconference start against a difficult schedule. The three mid-major opponents (South Dakota State, VCU, Western Kentucky) are early favorites to lead their conferences, and the only loss came at the hands of Gonzaga, arguably the top team in the nation. The team is led by their twin towers Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe, standing at 6-foot-10 and 6-foot-9, respectively. On the outside, junior Sean McNeil and senior Taz Sherman are the marksmen, and sophomore Miles McBride is emerging this season, with double-digit scoring in all five competitions thus far. Coach Huggins, a Morgantown native and West Virginia alum, is fielding the strongest roster ever, a team with legitimate national title aspirations, that he will hope to lead into March.
Pick: West Virginia -24
Texas State @ Texas - 8:00 pm
Coach Danny Kaspar's Bobcats program is the latest stop in his 41-year coaching career in the state of Texas. This Sun Belt squad is undersized, but has some things to be excited about. Despite losing Sun Belt Player of the Year Nijal Pearson to graduation, the Bobcats have started 3-1 and kept things close with Mississippi for 30 minutes in the sole loss. The 5-foot-9 diminutive junior guard Mason Harrell is developing as a go-to option, and is earning his reputation as a three-point sniper. Coach Kaspar likes to keep fresh legs on the court, and often will run full-court press, harkening to his days in charge of the nearby Stephen F. Austin program in Nacogdoches. Texas State has connected on 38.9% of its 3-pointers so far, and will need to heavily rely on the deep ball to stay with their big brother in Austin, Texas.
While Texas football is certainly not back, Texas basketball has come roaring back this year. With a 4-1 start, including wins over North Carolina and Indiana, the Longhorns look like a solid Big 12 contender. Coach Shaka Smart has continued the long line of rangy, athletic shot-blocking centers with Jericho Sims. Sims plays a similar brand of basketball to Jaxson Hayes - strong on the boards and swats a lot of shots. Undersized bigs like the Bobcats' Alonzo Sule (6-foot-7) may be in for a long day when dealing with Sims. Sims, like Hayes and Tristan Thompson before him, doesn't make much of a dent on offense outside of dunks, which is why the trio of guards Matt Coleman, Courtney Ramey and Andrew Jones are so important. The dynamic group combined for 35.1 points per game last season, and have been joined by highly touted freshman forward Greg Brown this year. The Longhorns brought back everyone from last year's team, and despite the pandemic they seem to have improved significantly.
Pick: Over 132.5
Georgia Tech @ Nebraska - 9:00 pm
The 22nd year of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge brought another rematch between the hated rivals from Atlanta, Georgia and Lincoln, Nebraska. The question remains for this Georgia Tech team - are they the team that lost opening matches to in-state mid-majors Georgia State and Mercer, or are they the program that beat Kentucky on national television last Sunday. The answer is likely somewhere in the middle. Coach Josh Pastner has a mediocre 66-69 record as he enters his 5th year at the helm, and fans are starting to get restless. Luckily, this is the best Yellow Jackets team on paper that he's ever had. The scoring is charged by a trio of guards - Jose Alvarado, Michel Devoe and Bubba Parham - and their dominant junior center Moses Wright. Alvarado is a fourth-year starter at point guard and he dictates much of what Georgia Tech likes to do on offense. Wright has been sensational so far this season, averaging 25 points and 12 boards per game along the way. This team is not as deep as you might like, with the big 4 of Alvarado, Devoe, Parham and Wright logging as many minutes as Pastner can get out of them. If Wright's leap to stardom is sustained, and former VMI transfer Bubba Parham rediscovers his 3-point touch, the Yellow Jackets may be a dark horse contender in the ACC.
The Big Ten is a meager 6-12-3 all-time in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, a figure that Nebraska will hope to correct in the near future. Coach Fred Hoiberg has built his team through the transfer portal, as six of the top seven scorers have transferred in from other programs. Guards Dalano Banton (Western Kentucky) Trey McGowens (Pittsburgh), Teddy Allen (West Virginia) and Kobe Webster (Western Illinois) hope to spark the Cornhusker basketball resurgence alongside fellow transfer forwards Lat Mayen (TCU) and sparkplug Shamiel Stevenson (Pittsburgh/Nevada). This massive influx of talent is giving Nebraska fans hope that Coach Hoiberg can fast track the program's recovery. The only holdover from prior to Coach Hoiberg's tenure is a starting senior guard Thorir Thorbjarnarson, hailing from across the Atlantic Ocean in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Pick: Georgia Tech +1.5
Chattanooga @ Bellarmine - 7:00 pm
Chattanooga earns the distinction of welcoming Bellarmine to the ranks of Division I in the Knights' home opener at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. The Mocs are off to a fast start (4-0) thanks to the play of senior guard David Jean-Baptiste. Jean-Baptiste, a preseason pick for Southern Conference All-Conference teams, is averaging 19 points per game, having just recently eclipsed 1,000 points for his career. Alongside the star, 6-foot-4 wing Malachi Smith, a Wright State transfer, has earned a reputation as a Charles Barkley-type rebounder averaging 11.3 per game in the early going. The offensive wingmen are South Alabama transfer Josh Ayeni and senior Stefan Kenic, who both provide offensive punches inside and will give the Mocs a fighting chance in the SoCon this season.
The Bellarmine Knights entered the 2020-2021 college basketball season as one of four new Division I programs, joined by Tarleton State, Dixie State and UC-San Diego. The Knights started off with about as difficult a task as could be asked, but covered a large spread in an opening loss at Duke, before defeating Howard to gain their first-ever win as a Division I program. Playing in the Sun Belt Conference, the Knights returned only 1 starter from last year's team, but have seen senior forward Ethan Claycomb and junior guard Dylan Penn step up as offensive weapons. Coach Scott Davenport, and his son and top assistant Doug Davenport, run a similar offensive set to that of former Belmont head coach Rick Byrd, relying on back-cuts and sharing the ball. In practices, Coach Davenport will often require a set number of passes before shots can be taken. This sharing of the ball has led to a wide spread of statistics across the box score and an unselfish and determined team ready to make its mark in the ranks of Division I.
Pick: Chattanooga PK
Thanks for reading, and remember to gamble responsibly.
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