Daily Dunk: Best College Basketball Bets Today (How to Bet Baylor vs. Texas Tech)
Strap in folks, we have a jam-packed day of college hoops.
There are plenty of conference tournament games going on in the mid-majors while other conferences are wrapping up their regular season. That leaves plenty of intriguing games to watch and bet on.
In this article, I'm going to break down my three best bets for today's slate, including a play for the Big 12 showdown between Baylor and Texas Tech.
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College basketball best bets today
- Iowa State -3.5 vs. Kansas State
- Texas Tech -1.5 vs. Baylor
- New Mexico +2.5 vs. Utah State
Iowa State vs. Kansas State prediction
In my opinion, we can look past the shooting for both teams in this game because the real story about this matchup is going to be about the turnovers. Iowa State is one of the best teams in the country at forcing them, ranking second amongst all college basketball teams in opponent turnovers per possession.
Now, they face a Kansas State team that's one of the worst in coughing the ball up, turning the ball over on 20.7% of their possessions, which ranks 348th in the country.
The Wildcats are going to have to shoot the lights out today if they want to make up for the fact they'll likely lose the turnover battle by a wide margin. So, with that in mind, I'll back the Cyclones as road favorites in this one.
Baylor vs. Texas Tech prediction
Whether or not Warren Washington suits up for Texas Tech in this game is going to play a big role in the outcome, but I'm going to take a risk and bet on the Red Raiders this morning before hearing the official news.
Baylor has some defensive holes that not enough people are talking about. The Bears rank just 225th in opponent effective field goal percentage and 159th in defensive efficiency. Texas Tech can also have some success on the perimeter in this game against the Bears' very average three-point defense.
We also have to note Baylor's effective field goal percentage drops 8% when playing on the road compared to at home this season.
I'll back Texas Tech to get the job done today and finish off the season with a win.
New Mexico vs. Utah State prediction
Utah State is a strange team when it comes to its defense. They have the second-best perimeter defense in the country, keeping teams to shooting just 28.3% from beyond the arc, yet the Aggies are 302nd in opponent two-point field goal percentage, allowing teams to shoot 53.1% from down low.
If you put that into practice, it should mean that Utah State will thrive against three-point shooting teams and struggle against teams who attack the interior of their opponent's defense. That could be a big reason why the Aggies have already lost to Nevada and New Mexico this season. In the first meeting, the Lobos shot 69.38% from the interior en route to a 99-86 win.
New Mexico is a stylistic nightmare for Utah State so while you may think betting on the No. 22-ranked Aggies as small home favorites is an obvious bet, think again. I'll take the points with the Lobos.
Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
You can check out all of Iain's bets here!