Daily Dunk: Best College Basketball Bets Today (Memphis Will Trounce UAB)
Just because the NFL conference championship games take place today, doesn't mean we can't bet on some college basketball as well. There are a handful of games that are set to take place across the country and I have bets locked in on three of them.
Call me Mr. Chalk, because I'm backing three favorites to cover the spread. Let's dive into my best bets.
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Best College Basketball bets today
- Purdue -10.5 vs. Rutgers
- East Carolina -6.5 vs. Temple
- Memphis -4 vs. UAB
Purdue vs. Rutgers prediction
This bet is as straight forward as they come. You can throw all advanced metrics out the window because at the end of the day, the goal is putting the ball in the hoop and this game is a matchup between one of the best teams in the country at doing that, and one of the worst teams.
Purdue enters the game ranking 11th in effective field goal percentage, while Rutgers ranks 356th. The Scarlett Knights are the seventh worst shooting team in all of division one college basketball and the worst amongst all power conference teams.
Rutgers is a great team defensively, which is enough to give it an edge against teams who are poor on their own side of the court, but that's not the case in this one. The Boilermakers are almost as good defensively as they are offensively, coming in at 44th in the country in defensive efficiency.
Don't overthink this one. Purdue gets the job done and wins by double-digits.
Temple vs. East Carolina prediction
If styles make fights, than East Carolina should be poised for a big win today against Temple. The Owls shoot the 3-ball at the 30th highest rate in the country with 44.9% of their shots coming from beyond the arc. That's going to feed right into the strength of the East Carolina defense. The Pirates are 37th in opponent three-point field goal percentage, keeping teams to shooting 30.8% from three point land.
Things were bad enough as it is for Temple. The Owls rank 350th in effective field goal percentage and their eFG% drops from 45.7% at home to 43.1% on the road.
I'll lay the points with the Pirates at home.
Memphis vs. UAB prediction
This game is an interesting case as it's a rare situation where both teams have performed better on the road this season than at home. Memphis' eFG% improves from 52.3% at home to 54.4% on the road. UAB's eFG% drops 49.2% on the road down to 47.9% at home. That means that despite the Tigers being on the road in this one, it shouldn't deter you from betting on them.
UAB keeps the majority of its shots down low, ranking 46th in two-point shot rate. Now, the Blazers face a Tigers defense that keeps teams to shooting just 47.6% from down low.
The Blazers' defense is going to struggle in this one as well, ranking 248th in opponent effective field goal percentage.
I'll take the Tigers to get the job done on the road.
Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
You can check out all of Iain's bets here!