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Welcome back! In this article, and every week, we'll be giving you some of the top college basketball games and betting picks for Wednesday, January 5, 2021.
Last week's slate of games resulted in a perfect 4-0 record. UNC-Asheville fought off a presky Longwood squad for a key Big South road win, while Austin Peay held off Tennessee State in impressive fashion. The Richmond-Davidson game went down to the wire, with the Spiders holding the edge, while George Washington took advantage of a rusty first-time-out Fordham team in a blowout victory as underdogs. This 4-0 week improves the season-long record to 12-5.
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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New Orleans @ Central Arkansas - 8:00 pm
It has been a difficult start to the year for the New Orleans Privateers, with a 1-8 record. In the Privateers' six road games so far, the the team is scoring a mere 62.7 points, only coming within single digits in a few games. Coach Mark Slessinger is in his 10th season as the head coach of New Orleans, and his 22nd straight year as a coach in the Southland Conference, with a previous lengthy stay as a top assistant at Northwestern State. During Slessinger's tenure, the Privateers have only danced once (2017), and he's only notched two seasons above .500. When New Orleans has the ball, keep an eye on the diminutive senior point guard Lamont Berzat, standing at a generously listed 5-foot-6, who plays with a ton of heart and leads the team in assists. The bulk of the scoring will come from fellow senior guards Troy Green (16.2 points per game (ppg)) and Damion Rosser (14.6 ppg). Naturally, as is the problem in most seasons, the tallest contributor is only 6-foot-6, so New Orleans may have a whale of a time holding its own on the boards. Despite a prime location in a major U.S. metro, the University of New Orleans continues to lag behind their more-rural Southland competition year-after-year.
Central Arkansas earned its second win of the year and its first conference win with a 14-point drubbing at McNeese State. The Bears are led by head coach Anthony Boone, who replaced his friend and predecessor Russ Pennell after Pennell had to take a personal leave of absence mid-way through last season. Sporting a 2-7 record, the outside observer would be correct that things could be better in Conway, Arkansas. Coach Boone's group scheduled a difficult gauntlet of non-conference games that make the record misleading to the untrained eye. The leading scorer is senior guard Rylan Bergersen, a guard who began his career at BYU but has flourished to the tune of nearly 34 minutes per game and almost 16 ppg - nearly identical to his output last season. DeAndre Jones, likewise, can be a lethal scorer as he sports a 52.5% mark from beyond the arc, but has shot two-point field goals at a dreadful 30.3%. The Bears have had a hot had from deep despite the poor record, and regression would indicate that may come crashing down in the near future.
Pick: Under 151 points
Utah State @ New Mexico - 9:00 pm
Coach Craig Smith has overseen a recent run of excellence in his third season as the man-in-charge in Logan, Utah. As will be the case with many "mid-major" conferences, this game will be the first of a back-to-back doubleheader, with the following matchup two days later on the same court. Despite the graduation of Sam Merrill, who was drafted with the 60th overall selection as the NBA's "Mr. Irrelevant," the Aggies sport a 5-0 Mountain West conference record for the first time in school history, and gave BYU a scare earlier this year. The Aggies are paced by their fearsome junior duo in the frontcourt - 7-foot-0 Portuguese center Neemias Queta and 6-foot-7 Oklahoman Justin Bean. Queta, who was the 2019 Mountain West Defensive Player and Freshman of the Year and a two-time All-Mountain West Second Teamer, flirted with leaving for the 2020 NBA draft, before ultimately returning to school for a third go-around. Bean is the current active leader in the Mountain West Conference with 20 career double-doubles, and has had 30 career double-digit rebounding games despite his smaller stature. For the Aggies to become a more fearsome March Cinderella, they'll need bigger contributions from their guards junior sharpshooter Brock Miller, junior Virginia transfer Marco Anthony and freshman phenom Rollie Worster, who has had more double-digit scoring games as a freshman in his first 10 games than any other Utah State freshman ever.
The state of New Mexico, under governor Michelle Lujan Grisham's executive orders, have made collegiate sports incredibly difficult. The state does not allow professional or collegiate sports to be played within the state, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, New Mexico University relocated their men's basketball team to Lubbock Christian University, in Texas, for this game. Head coach Paul Weir has had a solid four-year tenure with the Lobos, and is doing everything he can to help his team overcome the adverse conditions of this season. Senior Australian wing Makuach Maluach is the engine that drives this team, scoring 15 ppg, despite a dreadful 56% clip from the charity stripe. As a team, the Lobos have only a win over Rice as their sole Division I victory, but did show some signs of life in a 10-point loss to Nevada on January 2. The Lobos' roster has an international flair, with six international players, including promising Dominican freshman forward Bayron Matos, who will have to step up big to contest Queta and Bean.
Pick: New Mexico +13.5
UNC-Greensboro @ Wofford - 7:00 pm
Coach Wes Miller was a highly sought after commodity but decided to stay in Greensboro with a promising team chasing after a Southern Conference title. The Spartans lost their SoCon opener at home against a rebuilding East Tennesee State team. Senior guard Isaiah Miller, a native of Covington, Georgia, entered this season with 1,410 points, two SoCon Defensive Player of the Year awards, and two first team All-SoCon performances. With increased offensive responsibilities this year, Miller has been struggled with efficiency at times but is scoring 19.1 ppg, albeit with more turnovers than assists. For the Spartans to be successful as a whole, Miller needs to trust his teammates more beginning with the 7-foot-0 Central Arkansas transfer center Hayden Koval. Koval was a dominant force in the Southland, but has struggled with his shot at times, shooting only 38% from the field and 21% from deep, despite his historical proficiency as a stretch-big.
The Wofford Terriers still mildly resemble the dominant team from 2019 that earned a 7-seed in the NCAA Tournament and gave Kentucky a scare. Gone from that team are stars Fletcher Magee and Nathan Hoover, as well as head coach Mike Young who moved on to Virginia Tech last season. The Terriers still have their floor general Storm Murphy, who is scoring 18 ppg thus far. As usual, Coach Jay McAuley's team lets the ball fly from deep with 245 3-point attempts (30.6 per game) so far. In addition to Murphy, the Spartans will need to keep a close eye on freshman guard Morgan Safford, who has hit multiple 3-pointers in 5 of the Terriers' 8 games, including two 4-shot performances. Sophomore bigs Messiah Jones and BJ Mack, on the other hand, present an entirely different challenge that should give Wofford an atypical interior boost.
Pick: Wofford -2.5
The St. Joe's Hawks travel to upstate New York for an Atlantic-10 conference matchup. Coach Billy Lange is in his second year in charge, with a poor 0-7 start from his young Hawks. Lange relies heavily on junior stretch-four Taylor Funk, who is shooting 53% from the field this year. The offense has stagnated after senior guard Ryan Daly was lost in December to injury. Promising freshman wing Cameron Brown has started six of seven games, but his 29% field goal percentage and 3.6 fouls per game are indicative of the growing pains that Coach Lange will continue to undergo as he rebuilds this Philadelphia-area basketball program.
The Bonnies have been led by Mark Schmidt for fourteen seasons, and have enjoyed relative success of late. This year, the Bonnies did not get their season underway until December 15 due to COVID-19, leaving the Bonnies at only 4 games played to date. The star of the show is junior guard Kyle Lofton, who has been a Bonnie seemingly forever. Lofton rarely leaves the floor (37.2 minutes per game) and can be counted on as a go-to scorer, as he did last Saturday with a game-winning three-point shot to beat conference rival Richmond on Saturday. Junior center Osun Osunniyi is a behemoth on the post and logs heavy minutes for Saint Bonaventure. Osunniyi nearly averages a double-double, with 13.5 ppg and 9.3 rebounds per game this year.
Pick: Saint Bonaventure -12
Thanks for reading, and remember to gamble responsibly.
