Conference tournament action started very early on Saturday, as we even had some morning tip-offs to look at. In all, 21 games made the schedule on the day before Selection Sunday, as we’ll know who’s in and who’s out tomorrow, plus we’ll know the first-round matchups.

But, before we get to that point, we have today’s slate to get to, including championship games in several conferences and semifinals in others.

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.

Hawaii Rainbow Warriors vs. UC Irvine Anteaters (-1.5, 142.5)

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10 p.m. ET

We should have a good one tonight in the Big West between Hawaii and UC Irvine. The two teams split their regular season meetings and as you can see by this total going up about five points since open, we could have a lot of points here. There was a lot of shot volume for both teams in the two regular season meetings, one of which went Over this total.

I’m looking at the side here and looking at the Anteaters. Hawaii comfortably beat Cal State Fullerton by 15 last night, due in large part to a 25-of-26 performance at the free throw line. That was a bit of an outlier to say the least for a team that shot 74.1% at the stripe during the regular season. The Rainbow Warriors were only 3-of-22 from 3, so they had some problems shooting in the neutral venue and I’m not terribly surprised about that. This is a team that was much better on the island than on the road.

While Hawaii was busy posting a 43.4% eFG% against a Cal State Fullerton team that ranked seventh in adjusted defensive efficiency and 10th in eFG% defense out of 11 Big West teams, UC Irvine was having a big offensive showing against a better Cal State Northridge team. The Anteaters had a 59.4% eFG% on offense and also dominated on the offensive glass. They were 10-of-25 from 3 and 23-of-39 on 2s. Except for the turnovers, it was an outstanding offensive performance.

Hawaii was ninth in TO% on defense in the conference, so I don’t think we’ll see them picking up a bunch of takeaways against this Anteaters crew. While Hawaii played well on defense in conference play, UC Irvine was the top dog on that front. Add in what should be the better offense tonight and it’s UCI for me.

Pick: UC Irvine -1.5

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