College Basketball Best Bets Today: Odds, predictions and picks for Monday, February 20th – VSiN Exclusive News – News
The college basketball schedule today has 18 games
There are only 18 games on the Monday night College Hoops card, but we have a signature spotlight game between Kansas and TCU. It’s actually quite a mixed bag starting the work week with some Big 12, ACC and Big Ten, but also Big West, MEAC and SWAC. Be sure to turn on the next edition of the College Basketball Betting Podcast, which Tim Murray and I will record after Kansas/TCU is done. (tracking sheet)
Jonathan Von Tobel is still enjoying the NBA All-Star Break for a few more days, but Andy MacNeil is working hard NHL best bets today and this week there’s a new NHL betting podcast starring Andy and host Danny Burke. Speaking of Danny Burke, I’ll be with him today and tomorrow from 6pm-9pm ET for VSiN Primetime.
Here are some thoughts on the February 20 card (odds by DraftKings):
It’s a hideous map in college hoops today and was a bit difficult to find a game to play. Ultimately, I chose this one because Riverside has good blowout potential against Northridge in this competition. The Highlanders did just that in the first game with a 68-45 win and leading scorer Zyon Pullin didn’t even play in that game. He averages 17.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and leads with 4.2 assists per game.
UC Riverside is missing center Kyle Owens, but they’re better off playing as a jump shooter team anyway. That’s true of this duel, where Northridge allows 41.1% FG% for mid-range jumpers, and that’s a sweet spot for the Highlanders with 42.1% FG% on those shots. I don’t usually like mid-tier teams, but it fits into this matchup, along with the fact that UC Riverside shoots 35.7% from 3 and Northridge’s defensive strategy is to shoot many of them at a 3P rate against 39.2% force. .
The Matadors scored 45 points in the first encounter and 22 of them came at the free throw line as they were 11 of 47 off the ground. This is a poor attacking team with only two goalscorers and one of them, Dionte Bostick, has missed the last six games. Riverside has tremendous rebound edges on offense and defense so they get some of their misses and also clean the glass on Northridge’s bricks.
In the first game, Riverside had a 44-25 rebound edge and also had 26 shot attempts on the rim compared to 16 for the Matadors, due in large part to 11 offensive rebounds. It’s a rough map, but I liked this one enough to make it a game.
Choice: UC Riverside -7
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