It is a busy day in the college basketball world and quite a few seasons will come to an end. We have the start of five conference tournaments – ASun, Ohio Valley, NEC, Big South, and Summit – today and the one-and-done format means that the losers will clean out their lockers and have to focus solely on finishing out the school year. The winners will keep their dreams of an NCAA Tournament berth alive and advance to the next round.

In total, we have 40 games on the docket today and 18 of them are conference tournament games. Remember, in the interest of lead time, I can’t write about the early starts and there will be a lot of them in these tourneys. Greg Peterson can and does, as you can see with his linked content below.

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.

Fordham Rams (-2.5, 130.5) at La Salle Explorers

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6:30 p.m. ET

Only two games remain in the A-10 regular season as the jockeying for position continues in advance of next week’s conference tournament. A lot of the lower-tier teams in this conference have had wildly inconsistent seasons based on how the schedule set up. There are some really solid teams in this conference and Fordham played a lot of them early, starting off 1-6 in league play with losses to Dayton, Davidson, Duquesne, and Saint Louis. They’ve placed a lot better since, losing twice to VCU and once to St. Bonaventure, but Mike Magpayo’s first season in the Bronx has looked more promising as it has gone along.

I can’t say the same for La Salle and Darris Nichols. The former Radford head coach started 3-4 in conference play, but the Explorers have one win since Jan. 21. That includes a 64-58 loss to Fordham on Jan. 28. It’s not just that La Salle has been losing games, but they’ve been pummeled in some of them, including a 10-point road loss to a bad Loyola Chicago team.

While this is a major step back in class for Fordham, playing their first team outside of the Torvik top 150 since that Ramblers loss, this is one of the worst teams in the conference. The Explorers are dead last out of 14 teams in eFG% offense and 13th in eFG% defense. Fordham isn’t much better on offense, but they are 1.5% better in eFG% offense and rank 13th, so you can see just how far off the pace La Salle is.

The Rams are fourth in adjusted defensive efficiency and are probably the best all-around rebounding team in the conference. The Rams are only shooting 28.6% from 3 in conference play, something I expected to improve, but it really hasn’t yet. Still, they’ve been finding more success of late, winning four of their last five. Keep an eye on the Rams to make a big leap next season with a new transfer portal class for Magpayo, but also keep an eye on them tonight, as they’ve held six of their last nine opponents under a point per possession.

Pick: Fordham -2.5

Youngstown State Penguins at Robert Morris Colonials (-4.5, 141.5)

7 p.m. ET

It’s a fairly short bus trip from Youngstown, OH to Pittsburgh, PA, but it was probably a quiet one for the Penguins, as their Horizon League Tournament tenure begins tonight against the Colonials. Robert Morris won both regular season meetings and will be looking for the sweep and a flight to Indianapolis for the rest of the Horizon tourney.

Bobby Mo won 80-77 in OT in the first game back on Dec. 17, erasing a 10-point first half deficit in the process. They won 72-66 in the second game on Feb. 7, clawing back from a nine-point deficit with less than 10 minutes to play. The Colonials should have the coaching advantage here with the long-tenured Andrew Toole up against second-year bench boss Ethan Faulkner and I could argue that the two regular season data points are pretty good indicators of that notion.

A big reason Robert Morris won the two regular season games is because they dominated on the glass. The Colonials had 33 offensive rebounds across the two games, while the Penguins had 14. This is a Robert Morris team shooting 38.2% from 3 for the season and 38.9% from 3 in conference play. By comparison, Youngstown State only shot 33.6% from 3 and just 33% in their conference road games. For a team shooting a 3 nearly half of the time, that’s worrisome, particularly with a lot more one-and-done possessions than their opponents.

Robert Morris was second in eFG% offense and third in eFG% defense during the regular season, while Youngstown State was fifth in both departments. While their FT% was underwhelming as a group, the Colonials have FT shooters with 86.5%, 78.2%, 87.5, and 93.3% success rates to put this game on ice if they have a lead late.

I know people like to say it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season, but if you’re the better team, that sentiment doesn’t hold up as well.

Pick: Robert Morris -4.5

Little Rock Trojans vs. Lindenwood Lions (-2.5, 148.5)

9:30 p.m. ET

The nightcap of the OVC Tournament doubleheader features Little Rock and Lindenwood. These teams split the regular season series, with an 82-74 win for the Trojans and a 79-74 win for the Lions. That Feb. 5 game included 39 free throw attempts and 30 offensive rebounds. The first game had 28 FT attempts and 24 ORebs. Combined, the teams had 96 Close Two shot attempts over the two games.

This is a neutral setting in Johnson City, but nothing we’ve seen so far suggests that the venue really suppresses scoring all that much or anything. Also, with the season on the line, teams are likely to start fouling earlier in hopes of extending the game. I think we’re going to see a lot of second-chance opportunities, a heightened pace with Lindenwood looking to push the tempo, and a lot of trips to the free throw line. Points with the clock stopped are always going to help the cause for an Over.

Both games went Over during the regular season and both teams force an above average rate of turnovers, which should give us the chance at some transition buckets as well. These are two teams that don’t use the bench much, so the best players are on the floor a lot and are accustomed to being out there a lot. All of those things should be a good recipe for an Over.

Pick: Over 148.5

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