College Basketball Best Bets: How to Bet Thursday, Dec. 9 Slate
By Reed Wallach
College basketball season is in full swing and we always are combing through the nightly slate to find the best bets on the board.
Thursday is a relatively light slate, but there are a ton of high profile teams, including Gonzaga, Texas, Seton Hall and Iowa to name a few.
Here are my four best bets for a short Thursday night slate, which you can also find here in real time and have additional plays.
Column Record: 3-3 (-.0.3 units)
Seton Hall (-1) vs. Texas
The Pirates opened as home underdogs and moved to favorites on Thursday morning, and this is the last buy point for me. I see Seton Hall giving the Longhorns similar issues that Gonzaga did, by pushing the pace and dominating the offensive glass.
If you want to read my full game preview, click here.
It's worth noting that you should wait for SHU to announce if guard Bryce Aiken will be playing. The team needs to protect the rock against Texas, who is turning opponents over at the second highest rate in the country.
Kent State (-6) vs. Detroit
This is a brutal spot for the Titans, who are playing their ninth straight road game to start the season. After grabbing two straight wins against two team outside KenPom's top 270, I see some regression hitting and Kent State pulling away at home.
The Golden Flashes are vulnerable inside, allowing opponents to shoot 58% on two-point shots, but Detroit is very three-point reliant, shooting at a top 50 rate in the country, so I expect Kent State's biggest weakness to be mitigated.
I'm comfortable playing this up to -7
Grand Canyon (+3.5) at Arizona State
Full game preview here, but this is a great spot to back a strong rebounding team in Grand Canyon. Not to mention, Bryce Drew brought in two former Arizona State players in Holland Woods and Taeshon Cherry, who will be full of motivation to get a win over their former team.
The Sun Devils are coming off of an emotional win at PAC-12 foe Oregon last Sunday in overtime, snapping a five game skid, and can have a bit of a letdown against GCU. Further, Arizona State is 0-3 as favorites this season.
Iowa (-5) at Iowa State
I'm not thrilled at missing the best of this number, which opened with the Hawkeyes at -3, but I'm backing them to hand the surprisingly undefeated Cyclones their first loss of the year.
Iowa's too safe with the ball, best turnover rate in the country, for the Iowa State turnover-centric defense that took advantage of sloppier teams to pull upsets such as Xavier, Memphis and Creighton.