What a week it has been for us at VSiN on the college basketball front. You can check out the links below for Greg Peterson and Tyler Shoemaker, who are both on major heaters, plus “The Angle” has been making the rounds, a 38-10 ATS college basketball betting system dating back to Jan. 22. Just the right time with conference tournaments rolling out. Speaking of which, look for the Horizon Conference Tournament preview tomorrow.

I wrote up separate previews for Michigan vs. Illinois and Akron vs. Kent State, but we have 19 other games to think about in advance of another mammoth Saturday college hoops card tomorrow with more than 140 games. Before we get there, we need to get through today’s slate.

For more college basketball best bets today, check out Greg Peterson’s daily article and Tyler Shoemaker’s TSI Projections/Best Bets on weekdays.

As always, I want to give a shout-out to Bart Torvik (BartTorvik.com), Erik Haslam (Haslametrics.com), and KenPom, as they provide a lot of great data.

This season, we’ve also connected with CBBAnalytics.com to access their data and I’ll be working that into my article. Use promo code VSIN30 for $30 off at CBB Analytics and find your betting edge.

This article will run Monday-Saturday. Lines will be from DraftKings, as they are widely available to readers. Shop around for the best prices.

Check the latest college basketball odds for legal U.S. sportsbooks across the country and our Vegas odds if you share a state with us here at VSiN. Also, give the college basketball betting splits (DraftKings) and Circa CBB Betting Splits a look for these or any other college basketball games today have your interest.

Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publish.

Quinnipiac Bobcats (-8.5, 136.5) at Niagara Purple Eagles

6:30 p.m. ET

Conference tourneys aren’t underway yet, but they can provide us with some betting angles. In this MAAC matchup, the hosts will not qualify for the conference tournament, as the teams with the three worst conference records are left out and Niagara has already secured one of those. They just have these two home games left and that’ll do it for their season. Quinnipiac, meanwhile, has a chance to move up in the seeding with a couple of wins to end the season.

Niagara is typically a really slow-paced team. They rank 364th in adjusted tempo per Torvik and sit 13th out of 13 teams in tempo in MAAC play. Maybe they need to consider doing something different, since they are just 4-14 in league games. Nevertheless, with nothing left to play for, defense sometimes goes out the window and guys are out there just looking for buckets. The better the scoring numbers, the more likely somebody is to seek you out in the transfer portal.

The first game between these two teams was the opposite of a barnburner. It was a 56-55 Quinnipiac win in a game played to just 59 possessions. The Bobcats led by as much as 17 in the first half, but actually trailed before a game-winning 3-pointer with three seconds left. It was an odd game for the Bobcats, who are 47th in the nation in adjusted tempo per Torvik. 

It should be noted that Quinnipiac was just 9-of-26 on Close Two shot attempts and had 19 offensive rebounds in the first game, but apparently there was a cover over the basket or something. Maybe the rim was bent like it is at the carnival. Whatever the case, the Bobcats should fare a lot better offensively here. And I think Niagara will be willing to play at a heightened pace and lose some of their structure.

The first game had 111 combined points and we’ve seen the Over get hit in this game. That seems like a good sign to me.

Pick: Over 136.5

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers at James Madison Dukes (-5.5, 140.5)

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8 p.m. ET

James Madison has been kind to us lately and I’m going back to the well for another drink in this one. The Dukes host the Chanticleers in the regular season finale for both teams. The Sun Belt has the chance to be extremely chaotic from a seeding standpoint and there may be 100 different tiebreaker scenarios in play. It’s definitely important to try and get as good of a seed line as possible with the format of this tournament.

JMU won the first meeting nine days ago in Conway, escaping with a 67-65 win in a game played to 66 possessions. The Chants got 31 of their 65 points from Joshua Beadle, who only had six points last time out against Georgia State in a 1-of-10 performance from the floor. Similarly, JMU got 22 of their 67 from Cliff Davis, but he’s had seven 20+ point games in conference play and has done so in each of the last three games and four of the last five.

With a recent data point, there’s a lot to pull from that game. Let’s start with how James Madison had 27 shot attempts at the rim compared to just 10 for Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers were 10-of-18 on mid-range jumpers, which seems very tough to replicate. Both teams took really good care of the basketball and there were only 15 combined assists, so it was about individual players creating shots. James Madison has been better at that overall this season, sitting third in eFG% offense in Sun Belt play. Coastal Carolina is 12th in that department.

The two teams are on pretty equal footing defensively, except for one key thing. James Madison has held opponents to just 30.9% from 3. Given that Coastal doesn’t force the issue with getting to the rim and likes to settle for a lot of long jumpers, I’d anticipate another solid JMU defensive effort. But, I also think their offense will perform better.

Pick: James Madison -5.5

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