College Basketball Handicapping Articles

NCAA Basketball Betting 3-Point Play: Three Interesting Opening Lines Tuesday
by Alan Matthews - 1/26/2015

Will we have a mid-major program reach the Final Four this season? Certainly the top candidate is No. 3 Gonzaga, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see Coach Shaka Smart's VCU Rams reach the national semifinals for the second time this decade. Smart hasn't gotten past the second round since VCU lost to Butler in the 2011 Final Four. VCU is a +10000 long shot at Sportsbook.ag to win the national title. Here's a look at the Rams' game on Tuesday and two others that caught my eye.

College Basketball Betting: Weekly Schedule Spot Fade Picks
by Aaron Smith - 1/26/2015

The seventh edition of the Schedule Spot Fade Plays weekly article is here. For the second straight week, the schedule spot fade plays split at 2-2. The first two plays were losers on Wednesday night as Wake Forest +8 and Loyola (Chicago) -1.5 both fell short. Loyola was dealing with some injury issues that ended up being too much to overcome. Wake Forest simply ran into a North Carolina team that was an absolute buzzsaw on that particular night. Hawaii humbled UC Davis on Thursday night as Hawaii -2.5 cashed in. On Saturday, Georgia State finally got some revenge on Louisiana Lafayette as the Panthers covered the eight-point spread.

NCAA Basketball Betting 3-Point Play: Three Interesting Opening Lines Sunday
by Alan Matthews - 1/24/2015

Sunday could be a historic day in college basketball as Duke's Mike Krzyzewski can become the first Division I college basketball coach ever to win 1,000 games, which is just unfathomable. Fittingly, Duke will play for No. 1,000 at Madison Square Garden, the same arena that Coach K broke Bob Knight's record for career victories in November 2011. Knight is Coach K's mentor as Krzyzewski spent the 1974-75 season on Knight's staff at Indiana before being hired as the head coach at the U.S. Military Academy, Krzyzewski's alma mater, for the next season.

College Basketball Odds for Saturday with Preview and Analysis
by Robert Ferringo - 1/23/2015

Saturday is The Day in college basketball, and this weekend is no exception. Packed wall-to-wall with interesting action, the entire college hoops machine will be going full throttle, and it is a gambler’s paradise for noon into the wee hours of the evening.

NCAA Basketball Betting 3-Point Play: Three Interesting Opening Lines Saturday
by Alan Matthews - 1/23/2015

Three ranked teams in action on this list -- well technically four -- with potentially challenging road matchups on Saturday. And the good thing about basketball compared to football? We don't have to hear anything about whether the balls were inflated enough, although I can almost guarantee you the announcers will bring it up from a basketball perspective in every single telecast. Please let this story die! Here's a look at three intriguing matchups on the schedule.

2015 NCAA Basketball National Championship Futures Odds and Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 1/22/2015

Casual sports bettors don’t pay attention to college basketball until after the Super Bowl is over. That means that right now is a great time to look for value in NCAA Tournament futures before a bunch of money pours in, shifts things around, and potentially takes away some value. That being said, this is about the oddest season I can remember in college basketball.

NCAA Basketball Betting 3-Point Play: Three Interesting Opening Lines Thursday
by Alan Matthews - 1/21/2015

Three potential Final Four teams are in action on Thursday night, and it wouldn't shock me if two of them, Arizona and Gonzaga, lost to quality conference opponents. Meanwhile, second-ranked Virginia should remain unbeaten against arguably the worst team in the ACC. The Cavaliers are +900 at Sportsbook.ag to win the national title, with Arizona at +1200 and Gonzaga at +1400. Here's a look at each matchup, and it's an underdog Thursday.

College Basketball Betting: Weekly Big East Handicapping Report
by Dave Schwab - 1/21/2015

The Villanova Wildcats climbed all the way to No. 4 in the latest AP Top 25, but their stay near the top is likely to be brief after Monday night’s loss to Georgetown. The Wildcats came up on the wrong end of a 78-58 beatdown as four-point road favorites, and they are now just 3-6 against the spread in their last nine games. The only other Big East team in the national rankings is Seton Hall at No. 24 with a straight up record of 13-4 that includes a highly-profitable 13-3 record ATS.

College Basketball Handicapping: Kentucky Odds to Run the Table
by George Monroy - 1/20/2015

The Kentucky Wildcats, it seems, always end up in the middle of the ‘will they or wont they go undefeated’ conversation midway through every college basketball season. Coach John Calipari is nothing if not a master recruiter and seems to also produce the ‘greatest freshmen class of all time’ every summer. Yet, Kentucky loses games each year, and college basketball still has not seen an undefeated national champion in nearly 40 years.

College Basketball Betting: Weekly Schedule Spot Fade Picks
by Aaron Smith - 1/20/2015

The sixth edition of the Schedule Spot Fade Plays weekly article is ready to go. It was a four-play card last week for the fade plays, and those plays split at 2-2. Oakland and Texas were both great calls as Oakland pulled an outright upset and Texas covered by more than 20 points.

NCAA Basketball Betting 3-Point Play: Three Interesting Opening Lines Wednesday
by Alan Matthews - 1/20/2015

Larry Brown is a Hall of Fame basketball coach, and he has turned SMU into a solid program that could make the Big Dance this season for the first time since 1993. Wherever Brown goes he wins. However, wherever Brown goes trouble seems to follow, and now the NCAA is looking into some academic issues at SMU, which has seen a handful of players leave the program, including the nation's top-rated point guard recruit, Emmanuel Mudiay, who went to play in China amid eligibility concerns. The short-handed Mustangs have a tough one Wednesday at Tulane. Here's a look at that matchup and two others.

NCAA Basketball Betting 3-Point Play: Three Interesting Opening Lines Tuesday
by Alan Matthews - 1/19/2015

Coach John Beilein has done a terrific job at Michigan, which has made the NCAA Tournament each of the past four seasons and lost to Kentucky in the regional final last season. However, the Wolverines got some devastating injury news over the weekend that I believe relegates them to the NIT and not the Big Dance come March. Here's a look at Michigan's matchup and two other intriguing games on Tuesday.

NCAA Basketball Betting 3-Point Play: Three Interesting Opening Lines Sunday
by Alan Matthews - 1/17/2015

Sunday is perhaps the greatest NFL day of the season with both conference championship games being played, and that no doubt will take up most of your betting attention at sportsbooks. However, if you are looking for a few solid college basketball options, perhaps to use on a multi-sport parlay with the AFC or NFC title game, here's a look at three intriguing matchups on the schedule.

NCAA Basketball Betting 3-Point Play: Three Interesting Opening Lines Saturday
by Alan Matthews - 1/16/2015

College basketball really takes over Saturdays from now until the first weekend of April, and this Saturday's schedule is easily the best of the season thus far. Nearly every ranked team is in action, with five matchups featuring both teams ranked in the Top 25. Also, Kentucky and Virginia are the only unbeatens left in the nation, and they both are on upset alert in road games at Alabama and Boston College, respectively. Here's a look at three intriguing matchups.

NCAA Basketball Handicapping: Big-Name Teams in Trouble
by Trevor Whenham - 1/16/2015

When football season winds down, a lot of football bettors become casual college basketball bettors. It’s a good way to pass the endless days of winter. Since they haven’t been paying much attention to college hoops for the early part of the season, though, they rely on the names and reputations of teams to make their betting decisions as much as anything else. It’s not a great approach at the best of times, but it can really be a problem when proud and mighty schools have hit a rut and just aren’t playing at a level they should be.

College Basketball Handicapping: Experts Talk Syracuse Hoops
by Robert Ferringo - 1/15/2015

Flash back less than one year ago and things were perfect in the world of Syracuse basketball. Literally perfect. The Orange had just beaten Boston College to move to 17-0 on the season and were well on their way to a magical 25-0 start and the No. 1 ranking in the country. The Orange were still riding the momentum of their trip to the Final Four the previous spring and were unbeaten in their maiden voyage through a new league, the ACC.

College Basketball Betting: Overrated Teams
by Trevor Whenham - 1/15/2015

With so many teams in college basketball, people often rely on reputation and hype to make decisions about which teams to bet on. That can lead to situations in which teams are performing on the scoreboard in a way that gains a lot of attention but which isn’t being matched by their performance at the betting window. From a betting perspective, then, these teams are highly overrated — and that can get expensive if you get sucked in by their reputations. Here is a look at five of the most overrated betting teams in college basketball so far this year:

College Basketball Handicapping: Mid-Majors with Betting Value
by Trevor Whenham - 1/14/2015

I absolutely love college basketball, and one of the many reasons is one of the reasons that critics give for hating the sport — the ridiculous numbers of teams. With more than 300 squads toiling for a chance to make the tournament, there are countless opportunities for profit out there just waiting for bettors to discover them. Mid-majors are typically ignored by most bettors until the tournament rolls around, but there many good teams out there worth a look — and often times a bet or two as well.

NCAA Basketball Betting 3-Point Play: Three Interesting Opening Lines Thursday
by Alan Matthews - 1/14/2015

The chances of Wisconsin, a Final Four team a year ago, landing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament may have suffered a big blow last week when one of the team's key players was lost to a broken foot. The Badgers still should be favorites to win the Big Ten but not as strongly now. Here's a look at Wisconsin's game against Nebraska on Thursday -- which should be very, very low scoring between two excellent defensive teams -- and two other intriguing matchups.

College Basketball Betting: Weekly Big East Handicapping Report
by Dave Schwab - 1/14/2015

The Big East is two weeks into conference play, and it might be down to having just one team ranked in the next AP Top 25 following No. 21 Seton Hall’s 79-75 loss to Butler as a 2.5-point home favorite this past Tuesday night. That lone team left in the rankings just so happens to be one of the best in the entire nation at No. 5. The Villanova Wildcats will bring a 15-1 straight up record into Wednesday night’s matchup against Xavier as 11-point road favorites on 5Dimes’ current betting odds.