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Welcome back! In this article every week, we'll be reviewing some of the top college basketball games and betting picks.
In the 2020-2021 season, we've seen our share of surprises so far, chiefly with COVID-19 cancellations, and a heavy dose of Bill Walton announcing the Maui Invitational Tournament (which is being held in Asheville, North Carolina) from home.
Here are some of the top college basketball betting picks. Let me know your thoughts, and follow along the action with me on Twitter @fredetterline. All game times below are Eastern Standard Time.
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Lipscomb @ Cincinnati - 5:00 pm
The Lipscomb Bison endured road bumps under new head coach Lennie Acuff last year, having to replace the team's five top players from the 2018-2019 NIT runners-up. The 2019-2020 Bison started the year just 8-14, before winning 8 of their last 10 games to finish with a .500 record. The team found its groove when its top player, center Ahsan Asadullah, found his groove. During the 8-2 finish to the season, Asadullah averaged 23.4 points per game on 57% shooting, and played over 80% of available minutes, in what was largely a one-man show on offense. This year, Coach Acuff found some help for Asadullah in the form of graduate transfer guard Romeao Ferguson from Division II Belmont Abbey College. Ferguson was a two-time All-Conference player, the defensive player of the year, and shot a staggering 45% from 3-point range last season. The Asadullah-Ferguson combo, aided by the sharpshooting of senior point guard Greg Jones, led the Bison to an opening victory over Lamar, and nearly helped them take down Tulane, an AAC foe. The Bison may be a mid-major team to keep a close eye on, and should be one of the favorites this year in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Coach John Brannen lost a lot of production from the 2019-2020 Bearcats squad, namely the Cumberland cousins - Jarron and Jaevin. Jarron Cumberland, arguably the top player in the AAC and one of the greatest Bearcats of all-time, is expected to latch on with an NBA team for the upcoming training camp. Taking the Cumberlands' lead this year will be returning senior guard Keith Williams and senior center Chris Vogt. Williams will be given much more ballhandling duties, which is why the addition of Colgate transfer Rapolas Ivanauskas - a stretch-4 who can shoot it with proficiency, is crucial. Cincinnati is one of only six schools to have appeared in each of the last nine NCAA Tournaments, and Coach Brannen has a squad that has a fighting chance of extending that stretch, joining only Gonzaga, Duke Kansas, Michigan State, and North Carolina (boy, the Tar Heels chose a good year to have a bad year last year). A fun fact about Cincinnati - both the men's and women's basketball rosters include a set of twins - freshmen Gabe and Mason Maden on the men's side, and sophomores Jada and Jadyn Scott on the women's side.
Pick: Lipscomb +12.5
Southern Illinois-Edwardsville @ Northern Illinois - 7:00 pm
The SIU Edwardsville Cougars have been the laughingstock of the Ohio Valley Conference since they joined the conference in- 2012. Despite never having recorded a winning season in Division I basketball, the Cougars granted head coach Brian Barone an extension through the 2023-2024 season, rewarding him for an 8-23 campaign last year. Some might be encouraged looking at the early stats seeing that they kept things close with LSU, only to lose by 13. Digging deeper, the Cougars made 13 3-pointers against LSU, which marked the most 3-pointers that they had made against a Division I opponent since 2010.
Northern Illinois kicked off their season with a disappointing home loss to Illinois-Chicago. The Huskies squandered an early lead in the late minutes in what Vegas viewed as a toss-up game. Coach Mark Montgomery has led Northern Illinois for the past decade, with some of his best results in recent years, on the back of star Eugene German. With German having graduated, the Huskies have been forced to turn to a team of junior college transfers, and a few holdovers from last year's team. Among the key players to watch is junior guard Trendon Hankerson, who scored 7.5 points per game last year and will need to pick up more of the scoring this season. In the middle, the 6-foot-9 center Adong Makuoi could pose problems for an undersized Edwardsville team.
Pick: Under 136.5
Missouri vs. Oregon - 9:00 pm (Omaha, NE)
Coach Cuonzo Martin's Missouri Tigers began the 2020 season with a convincing 91-64 drubbing of Oral Roberts. Mizzou is a veteran team, with a starting lineup full of upperclassmen. Guards Xavier Pinson and Dru Smith are the engines that keep the balanced offensive attack moving. An area that Missouri should see a clear advantage on is on the boards, strengthened by their average height of 6-foot-6, the ninth tallest team in the nation. Ken Pomeroy's 55th ranked team a season ago, enters Wednesday's game on FS1 with a desire to prove that this experienced squad can climb to new heights in the SEC. Senior big man Jeremiah Tilmon, a legitimate NBA prospect who tested the draft waters this past offseason, has tantalizing talent that has yet to truly materialize in the way of consistent production. Tilmon may fall in the footsteps of similar bigs like Khem Birch, DeAndre Jordan, and a host of other big men who had relatively obscure collegiate careers to go on to something bigger and better in the NBA.
The Oregon Ducks kick their season off in Omaha, Nebraska, after having their original season opener postponed due to COVID-19 positive tests at Eastern Washington. The Ducks will be led by a combination of returning stars and incoming transfers that hope to inject Coach Dana Altman's team with continued success. 6-foot-6 guard Chris Duarte is a swiss-army knife who seemingly ranked second on the team in every category, and is the team's go-to on-ball defender. The bulk of the scoring will likely fall to Duarte, returning backup guard Will Richardson (a 47% 3-point shooter and the 6th man behind Payton Pritchard last year), and a pair of incoming transfers in Eric Williams, Jr., and Eugene Omoruyi. Williams sat out last season after transferring 2,586 miles away from Duquesne to Eugene, Oregon. Williams was the top offensive weapon for the Dukes in his two seasons on campus, and should solidify the wing as an interchangeable piece with Duarte. Omoruyi, meanwhile, is a wide-bodied 6-foot-6 power forward that comes to the Ducks from Rutgers. During his 3 years in Piscataway, Omoruyi was the Scarlet Knights' best player and will bring much needed physicality to highly touted sophomore center N'Faly Dante.
Pick: Oregon -4.5
Saint John's vs. Brigham Young - 5:00 pm (Uncasville, CT)
The Saint John's Red Storm held off a charge from Boston College to start the year 3-0. They'll play their second game at the Mohegan Sun's "Bubbleville" Tournament against the usually sharp-shooting Cougars. Freshman point guard Posh Alexander has been the leader in the early going, with a combination of scoring (14 ppg), defense (3.3 steals per game) and leadership for Coach Mike Anderson's young team. Off the bench, sophomore forward Julian Champagnie, whose twin brother Justin is a forward for Pitt, scored 29 points and notched 10 rebounds in his only game of the season against Boston College the last time out. None of the three wins, nevertheless, have been all that inspiring. A 1-point win over Saint Peter's, and wins over A-10 bottom feeder La Salle, and ACC bottom feeder Boston College. The early returns do indicate that this young team is moving in the right direction, but can they continue shooting at a 57% clip against better competition? Regression would indicate this trend unlikely to continue.
Despite BYU's recent run of relative success in college basketball, the team is only 1-7 against St. John's all-time, with their last win in 1956. This game, which was only just scheduled hastily on Monday, marks the first time since 1990 that these two teams will meet. Coach Mark Pope's Cougars rely, as usual, on their shooting proficiency and rebounding prowess, though they will be without Yoeli Childs, Jake Toolson, TJ Haws, Zac Seljaas, and Dalton Nixon, all of whom graduated. None of these were on display in Tuesday's blowout loss to USC, in which BYU began the game shooting only 1-for-19. The team is deep, and chock full of shooters, led by guards Alex Barcello, Brandon Averette, and Connor Harding. In the middle for the Cougars will be Purdue transfer Matt Haarms, who has been eased into action and finally made his mark against the Trojans. In most possessions, the Cougars will field 4 shooters around Haarms or Utah Valley transfer Richard Harward.
Pick: BYU -2
Thanks for reading, and remember to gamble responsibly.
