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It has been a long, strange trip though the college basketball season and through the NCAA Tournament having it all in the state of Indiana. What we wind up with is the top two overall seeds in the National Championship game. Fitting, huh? So it really didn't matter that Houston became the only team in tournament history to play four double-digit seeds on the way to Indianapolis. It really didn't matter that Oral Roberts ousted Ohio State. We got what the committee thought we should.
Gonzaga wasn't tested until upstart UCLA took them to overtime and Jalen Suggs cut out their hearts with a 35-footer at the buzzer to avoid a second overtime period. Baylor was tested a few times, but that lockdown defense steered them through dreadful shooting against Villanova and stopped the high-powered Hogs when it mattered. Dominating Houston was the exclamation point that Gonzaga was supposed to issue at the Final Four, not Baylor. That leaves us with a very high (160) over/under and Gonzaga just a 4.5 point favorite. We should be in for a good one!
In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy college basketball showdown lineup picks for DraftKings on 4/5/21. I’ll be providing multiple player suggestions for players at guard and forward, aiming to highlight one option apiece at the high, middle, and lower end of the salary scale. Good luck, RotoBallers.
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DraftKings CBB DFS Captain
Drew Timme ($15,000)
My thoughts on the captain slot are pretty simple. Neither team is going to blow the other out, but Baylor spreads most of their scoring out among several different pieces. While Gonzaga has at times this season, it has been Timme that is carrying them through this tournament. Baylor's defensive effort is impressive, but they really haven't had to face a guy like Timme this year. The Bears aren't particularly long, so they're going to have issues keeping him away from the basket just like every other team has. That makes Timme the obvious pick for captain, but it also leaves us with just $7,000 per slot to fill out the roster. It's doable, but it also means that Timme might be the only Gonzaga starter that you can fit in your lineup.
Joel Ayayi ($11,100)
Ayayi is a way to get great consistency at the captain slot and still be able to roster Timme and Corey Kispert if you don't mind using a bench player or two. If any one player besides Ayayi has a monster game we're in trouble, but I see this being a mostly balanced game. Timme will of course be the highest scorer, but if you can fit in three pieces of the Gonzaga starting five, it's worth paying down a bit at captain. Baylor provides far more bench value than the Bulldogs do. We want to be able to heavily load the lineup with Gonzaga starters.
Also consider: Davion Mitchell ($12,300)
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DraftKings CBB DFS Utility
Corey Kispert ($8,400)
Kispert and Timme are both priorities for me. Win or lose, they are going to be the driving forces for Gonzaga in this game. This showdown slate wont be won by these two, but it can certainly be lost if you don't have both in your lineup. I really like Ayayi in this game as well, but if I can't fit him with both Kispert and Timme, then I can do without. It's these two, then figure out the rest.
Davion Mitchell ($8,200)
Mitchell has been Baylor's most consistent piece this tournament, and while I don't see Gonzaga uglying this game up to the point that Villanova did, they are also capable of slowing down the scoring of Jared Butler. Mitchell does a lot more without the ball than Butler does. If Butler isn't scoring, he isn't going to come anywhere close to getting us what we need for that price tag. Mitchell is by far the safest Baylor piece, and is the only Baylor player I would consider using as the captain.
Jonathan Tchamwa-Tchatchoua ($4,200)
If you want to captain Timme and fit in a couple other Gonzaga guys, we need this value. JTT played a big role in the regional final against Arkansas and turned in possibly his best game of the season against Houston with 11 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes. Baylor might have to use both JTT and Flo Thamba together to combat Gonzaga's size on the inside. My biggest fear with JTT here is that the Bears only use him to try and push Timme around and don't get him involved in the offense. Still, this is a decent price for a guy that is going to play at least half the game. He's the type of value play that we need.
Also consider: Jalen Suggs ($9,000), MaCio Teague ($6,600), Mark Mayer ($4,600)
