College Basketball Handicapping Articles

College Basketball Betting Advice: Weekly Schedule Spot Fade Picks
by Aaron Smith - 1/3/2017

College football is winding down. The NFL is in the playoffs. That means college basketball will be taking center stage soon. Conference play is here, and that means the teams know each other well. We'll see more of the heated rivalries, and I think college basketball fans can look forward to three more months of great action. There are a lot of very good teams this year, and there is no clear favorite to cut down the nets.

NCAA Basketball Expert Predictions: Three Interesting Jan. 4 Opening Lines
by Alan Matthews - 1/3/2017

Duke's chances of winning the ACC's regular-season title aren't looking great, although who really cares about regular-season championships. There's the whole Grayson Allen situation as he remains indefinitely suspended for his ridiculous tripping issue. And when Allen comes back is really up in the air now because Coach Mike Krzyzewski is going to coach Wednesday's game vs. Georgia Tech but then have back surgery Friday and miss about a month.

NCAA Basketball Expert Predictions: Three Interesting Jan. 3 Opening Lines
by Alan Matthews - 1/2/2017

Welcome to my first college basketball opening lines story of the New Year, where I will provide you with some early next-day lines where we might be able to find solid betting value. I'll also of course try and keep on top of any relevant injuries around the nation -- that's not quite as easy to do as in the NBA, but that's what we're here for. I'll have these for you each Tuesday-Saturday but not some Thursdays because Friday is always the quietest NCAA basketball night on the schedule. We'll play it by ear there. More often than not -- but not always -- I'll look at ranked teams because those games draw more action.

College Basketball Betting Advice: Weekly Schedule Spot Fade Picks
by Aaron Smith - 12/19/2016

Kentucky and North Carolina played in what I believe was one of the best college basketball regular-season games in the last few years. That game was played at a high level all the way. Most of the attention is still on football, but this game was a reminder of why college basketball is such a great sport.

College Basketball Betting Advice: Teams That Could Surprise in Conference Play
by Trevor Whenham - 12/16/2016

As Christmas nears thoughts turn to conference play in college basketball. Yesterday we looked at one team in each conference that has the potential to disappoint given the high expectations on them. It only makes sense, then, that we look at the other side. Here is one team from each major conference, and some others that are interesting, that is a long shot to win it all but which has the potential to surprise and make things interesting:

College Basketball Betting Advice: Teams that Might Disappoint in Conference Play
by Trevor Whenham - 12/15/2016

Conference play closely follows Christmas during the college basketball season. That's when games really start to matter and things really start to get interesting. It's also when bettors start to pay more attention. The premise here today is simple - we are going to look at the major conference and a few others of note, and we are going to pick out one team in each conference that has a real possibility to disappoint. It could be that they will disappoint based on sky-high expectations, or it could be that the nonconference schedule has made them look like something they aren't.

NCAA Basketball Betting Advice: Villanova Primed for Another Championship Run?
by Trevor Whenham - 12/15/2016

Defending a Final Four win is exceptionally hard to do. Florida did it under Billy Donovan in 2006 and 2007. They were the first since Duke, in 1991 and 1992, to repeat as champions. They were, in turn, the first to win two in a row since the Bruins finished their incredible seven-year run under John Wooden - which started only a year after they had won two straight.

College Basketball Betting Advice: Weekly Schedule Spot Fade Picks
by Aaron Smith - 12/13/2016

The College Basketball Weekly Schedule Spot Fade Picks article returns for the third straight season here at Doc's Sports. We are now deep enough into the season to have some idea about most of these teams, and there are more difficult scheduling situations now than there were in the early going. The slate of games this week is a bit light since many schools have final exams this week, but there will be a much bigger slate of games to look at for next week's article.

NCAA Basketball Betting Advice: Differences Between Conference and Nonconference
by Trevor Whenham - 12/13/2016

We are getting close to that magical time of year. The time when people rejoice and life seems like it just couldn't get any better. I'm talking, of course, about the start of conference play in college basketball. Nonconference play can be fun, and we get some marquee matchups, games played in exotic locations, and other reasons for excitement. It all only barely matters, though. It's just an appetizer. The real season begins when conference play gets rolling and every game because crucially important. Lose in November and you can almost always shake it off. Lose in January, though, and it could be fatal.

College Basketball Betting Advice and Help: ATS Studs and Duds
by Trevor Whenham - 12/13/2016

We really don't know much yet when it comes to college basketball. Conference play is about to start, and until it does the schedules teams play make it so tough to draw real conclusions about which teams are any good and which aren't. The sample size is getting big enough, though, that it is worth at least taking a look at the best and worst teams to bet on so far. The best teams won't all stay profitable, and the worst won't all struggle, but there are trends and lessons here for sure. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights of the betting season so far in college basketball:

College Basketball Betting Advice: Handicapping the UCLA Bruins
by Trevor Whenham - 12/9/2016

The UCLA Bruins can do no wrong this year - at least not on the basketball court. They are on a meteoric rise, starting the season ranked 16th in the AP poll but now all the way up to No. 2 in the most recent edition of the rankings. They got to that lofty height by opening 9-0 and, most significantly, by beating the Kentucky team that occupied that second spot in the preseason - at Rupp Arena, no less. It has been a heck of a start for the team.

College Basketball Betting and Handicapping: Michigan State Early-Season Struggles
by Trevor Whenham - 12/2/2016

Things have not gone according to plan for the Michigan State Spartans on the hardcourt this year. And that's an understatement. Heading into the season they were ranked No. 9 in one poll and No. 12 in the other, and several people suggested that they had upward mobility. Yet they lost their first game out of the gate and seemed to like that so much that they have kept doing it.

Big Ten - ACC Challenge Betting Advice and College Basketball Handicapping
by Trevor Whenham - 11/29/2016

November is the time for made up events is college basketball. Some of them are great. Others are ridiculous. For my money, though, the king of the pre-season spectacles in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. It's so simple yet elegant - every Big Ten team plays an ACC team, and the conference that wins the most games is the winner. The ACC has a 10-5-2 edge in the series but has lost the last two.

College Basketball Betting Advice: Early Season Handicapping Strategy
by Trevor Whenham - 11/18/2016

Betting college basketball in November and early December is a unique experience. Most casual bettors are obsessed with football or the early days of the NBA, so they have not yet even noticed that the college season has started. Other sports keep college basketball out of the major spotlight on TV and the web, too. Yet there are a whole lot of very good games being played, and there are plenty of chances for smart bettors to make a few bucks at relatively low risk.

NCAA Basketball Betting: Best Early-Season Matchups
by Trevor Whenham - 11/18/2016

The college basketball season is very young, but it has already started with a bang. There have already been five or six games that have been as good as any as you could hope to see. We can always hope that there will be other classics to come in the next couple of weeks, too. Looking over an always busy college basketball schedule from now until Dec. 3 there are seven games that stand out from the rest both for their potential to entertain and their massive significance to one or both teams involved.

2016 SEC Basketball Predictions with Expert Handicapping and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 11/11/2016

All we heard last year about the SEC was about the Renaissance that was occurring in this football-centric conference. However, it never quite materialized. And after spending last season trying to live up to the hype surrounding Kentucky, Ben Simmons, and several high-profile coaching hires, the SEC enters the 2016-17 campaign as one of the weakest and most disjointed leagues in the country.

2016 Duke Basketball Predictions with Betting Odds and Expert Analysis
by Victor Ryan - 11/9/2016

Duke enters the season ranked No. 1 in the AP poll and as the clear-cut favorite to win the National Championship. Coach Mike Krzyzewski has built a unit with a seemingly ideal blend of talented youth and proven experience. The hype machine has already tabbed this year's freshman class in Durham as perhaps the most talented ever assembled. It joins a returning group that includes National Player of the Year candidate Grayson Allen and senior forward Amile Jefferson, who averaged a double-double a season ago (11.4 PPG, 10.3 RPG) while patrolling the middle.

2016 ACC Basketball Predictions with Expert Handicapping and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 11/8/2016

Bloated or loaded? That's the question the 15-team ACC has to ask itself heading into the 2016-17 season. There are very clear tiers in this monster conference. But even so, an unbalanced schedule and a lot of uncertainty is going to make it very difficult to discern who's who and what's what from top to bottom in this league.

2016 Big Ten Basketball Predictions with Expert Handicapping and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 11/8/2016

I will say that last season was a slightly disappointing one for the Big Ten. They entered the year with no fewer than four potential Final Four teams, and I projected that eight teams would make the field. But the Big Ten sent only seven to the dance, including one (Michigan) that was relegated to a First Four play-in game. The league's highest seed, No. 2 Michigan State, was embarrassed in the first round, and all three of the Big Ten's Sweet 16 participants lost in that round.

2016 Pac-12 Basketball Predictions with Expert Handicapping and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 11/8/2016

The Pac-12 continues to produce some of the top teams and most explosive talent in college basketball. This year the league enters the season with two teams in the AP Top 10, a Final Four favorite (Oregon), one of the potentially most exciting and explosive teams in the nation (UCLA), and with six of the Top 20 freshmen in the country a bevy of potential one-and-done players.