Underdog NCAA Basketball Picks of the Day: Thursday, February 7th

Disclaimer: I hate betting favorites and love finding value in the underdogs for my NBA and NCAA basketball picks, so this series is dedicated to finding the best underdog Moneyline value plays for the day.

Last night’s underdog NCAA basketball picks had a solid hit in UNLV coming through at +220 in our last game of the evening. George Washington hung tough but simply couldn’t pull out a big run when they needed one most and ECU simply missed way too many wide open looks despite hanging tough.

We’re on to another night of NCAA basketball picks with a massive slate of NCAA games in store, there are quite a few underdogs that offer some great value and look poised to be in a prime upset position.

Underdog NCAA Basketball Picks

 COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON COUGARS VS DELAWARE BLUE HENS – 7:00pm ET

The Cougars have had a very respectable season thus far. After breezing through non-conference play, they’ve dominated Colonial Athletic Conference opponents at home but have struggled a bit on the road.

While they are coming off a nice 4 game win streak in their home building and have a home win over this Delaware squad in conference play, this game comes on the road where they sit just 1-3 in conference play.

The Cougars offense comes entirely from Grant Riller and Jarrell Brantley with no other player sniffing a double digit point per game average. Riller and Brantley both primarily look to attack the rim and while they can knock down the outside shot, they aren’t necessarily a consistent threat to do so.

In fact, the Cougars lack a reliable outside shooter across the roster and have shown the tendency to go stagnant on offense when they struggle to get to the rim.

While Delaware lacks the overall record of the Cougars, make no mistake, this is a tough team that gave ranked Maryland everything they could handle in their season opener.

Despite dropping their last two games on the road, the Hens are getting this match-up back at home where they have been a force going 4-1 in conference play.

Delaware also employs a much more well-rounded offensive attack compared to the Cougars, with multiple players stepping up and contributing when dynamic sophomore Ryan Allen went down.

However, Allen is back now and though he has struggled a bit in recent games, he has the tendency to go off at home. Eric Carter is also a key contributor down low for the Hens and does a great job at giving the Hens an aggressive presence on the glass.

Although the Cougars are on paper the better team and come to the table with the best player in the match-up, the fact remains that they have been exposed slightly since conference play started.

They are especially vulnerable on the road and despite beating the Hens in their own backyard last time around, the Hens are a very good squad at home and are a much better team than the last game would indicate.

Underdog NCAA Basketball Pick: Delaware Blue Hens (+195)

FIU GOLDEN PANTHERS VS UTSA ROADRUNNERS – 8:00pm ET

FIU comes into the matchup with the second fastest paced offense in the nation. Lacking any true size across the board (with the exception of seldom played big man Elhadji Dieng), FIU’s game plan is to simply tire you out and relentlessly run the court attacking the basket.

They don’t necessarily play the best defense in the nation, in large part due to their frantic offensive pace, but do boast a positive point differential on the year and create a ton of turnovers.

Senior Brian Beard Jr. is the undersized leader of the FIU attack and thrives offensively under FIU’s scheme. Despite only being listed at 5’10, he solid great downhill speed, crafty moves around the rim, and has above average court vision. Think of him like Isiah Thomas at Washington with a bit less consistent of a shot and much better defense.

UTSA on the other hand has a pretty fast paced offense in their own right. Ranked 16th in the nation, the Roadrunners push the pace but score in a slightly more diversified manner compared to the Panthers.

A much better shooting team from 3, the Roadrunners chuck up the 32nd most 3 point attempts in the nation and have a wide range of players who can consistently knock down the deep shot.

Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace make up a ferocious back court duo for the Roadrunners and put up over 20 shots from deep per game (knocking them down at a combined 40% clip). Together, they make life extremely tough on opposing defenses as more often than not if one goes quiet, the other is more than capable of picking up the slack.

Despite being undersized and lacking a consistent deep ball, the Panthers have shown that their frenetic offensive attack can turn games into pure chaos. They create a plethora of turnovers and should be able to score enough to weather any 3 point barrage the Roadrunners will inevitably unleash.

Look for a ton of points in what should be an extremely exciting matchup with the Panthers picking up a win off the back of their points off turnovers.

Underdog NCAA Basketball Pick: FIU Golden Panthers (+275)

SANTA CLARA BRONCOS VS PEPPERDINE WAVES – 10:00pm ET

Before diving into the analysis, this is a game that I actually will be in attendance for! As I’m in on the (spoiler alert) Broncos here, i’ll be braving some hostile territory. If you want to follow along with it, I’ll be on twitter throughout. So throw your guy a follow at @elkoon and let’s win some money together!

With that out of the way, let’s turn our focus to the Broncos. Santa Clara has been on the unfortunate (but expected) end of two BRUTAL beat-downs courtesy of Gonzaga which have skewed their overall season defensive stats quite a bit.

Outside of those two games, the Broncos have actually played some fantastic defense in conference play. They look to play off their defense on most nights by slowing things down and rank in the bottom 1/3rd of the NCAA in possessions per game.

Given their slow pace of play, the Broncos are almost forced to rely on a go-to bucket-getter and Tahj Eaddy is that dude. A sophomore who has made major strides since his freshman season, Eaddy is still a bit raw and has a tendency to go cold from time to time.

When he puts up over 15 points the Broncos win the overwhelming majority of their games, however, the Broncos struggle mightily when he goes cold and have only picked up two wins in games where he didn’t crack that mark.

On the flip-side, Pepperdine is going to try and play an entirely different ballgame. One of the fastest paced offenses in the WCC, the Waves look to run the floor and shoot the 3 ball at an above average clip.

They have a roster filled with shooters who aren’t half bad at creating turnovers leading to easy transition looks. Though they do a decent job at creating turnovers, their defense struggles a bit in terms of giving up open looks. They take a lot of gambles on that side of the ball and it has yielded some mixed results.

Colbey Ross and Kameron Edwards make up a solid one-two punch for the Waves with Ross bringing the play-making and Edwards offering a versatile wing that hits the boards hard. Both players are capable of knocking down the deep ball and help give the Waves an offensive attack that is dangerous at all three levels.

The biggest deciding factor in this game for me is how the last game went down. Santa Clara held both Ross and Edwards to arguably their worst games of the season behind the play of their strong defense en route to a win.

Despite this game being at home for the Waves this time around, defense travels and the Broncos have shown they understand the game-plan to shut down the Waves.

Underdog NCAA Basketball Pick: Santa Clara Broncos (+250)

That’s all for today’s underdog NCAA basketball picks. Stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all the latest NCAA basketball and DFS coverage each and every day!