With an enormous Saturday card on deck, we only have 13 games on Friday night, with the Big Ten, A-10, MAC, MAAC, Horizon, and Ivy League all represented. Indiana vs. Purdue is the big game of the night, but I opted for previews of VCU vs. Saint Louis and Bowling Green vs. Miami OH as standalone articles, so you can check those links out after seeing which of the other 11 games made the cut for me.

Keep in mind that we’ll be covering all 31 conference tournaments with at least 48 hours lead time before the first tip-off. The first conference tournament is March 2, so we are just about a week away from having our first conference tourney preview as teams in these one-bid leagues try to achieve a spot in the Big Dance.

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.

Canisius Golden Griffins (-1.5, 131.5) at Rider Broncs

7 p.m. ET

The season is effectively over for both Canisius and Rider. Based on the qualification format for the MAAC Conference Tournament, neither one of these teams will play beyond the end of the regular season. Canisius has a couple of road games this weekend and then finishes up at home next weekend, while Rider has the opposite. 

The statistical profiles for these two teams are really poor. Rider is 12th in eFG% offense and 13th in eFG% defense in conference action, while Canisius is 13th offensively and 11th defensively. The Golden Griffins have a 17.2% TO% that ranks sixth in conference play and Rider only has a 14.7% TO%, so Canisius has the better adjusted defensive efficiency metrics. Rider might be slightly better on offense.

With nothing to really play for except pride at this point, defense sometimes goes by the wayside. Teams will start playing a little bit faster in hopes of padding their stat totals. That seems particularly important in the transfer portal era, as players with a future elsewhere are going to try and fill the stat sheet a bit. That’s true of somebody like Kahlil Singleton of Canisius, who has had a handful of 20+ point games this season. 

If we do get a little bit quicker of a tempo, I could see Singleton and 6-foot-9 teammate Bryan Ndjonga probably being more effective than what Rider has in that type of setting, so perhaps that’s why money has hit the board on Canisius. But, I’ll focus more on the total here and take Over 131.5 in a game where I’d expect both defenses to be a little more lax than usual and the pace to probably pick up a bit as the players try to salvage some fun out of tough seasons.

Pick: Over 131.5

Niagara Purple Eagles at Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers (-6.5, 128.5)

Embed from Getty Images

7 p.m. ET

Tonight is likely the night that Niagara gets eliminated from contention for the MAAC Conference Tournament, as the Purple Eagles sit 4-12 in league play and Iona is three games clear. After tonight, there will only be three league games left for the teams and the bottom three teams in the 13-team conference do not qualify.

Mount St. Mary’s has some seeding implications the rest of the way, as head coach Donny Lind tries to take his team dancing for the second straight year after winning the MAAC auto bid last season. This year’s team is not really on the level of last year’s, but they’re a decidedly better team than Niagara.

In the first meeting between these two back on Jan. 19, Mount St. Mary’s won 68-58 in spite of some outliers for Niagara. The Purple Eagles, who rank 12th in ORB% in MAAC play, had 18 offensive rebounds. That was the biggest one, as the ORebs allowed Niagara to take 59 shots from the floor compared to 52 for the Mountaineers. And yet, Niagara had less than a point per shot attempt in that game because they were so inefficient on offense.

Mount St. Mary’s has problems taking care of the basketball, but they are actually a really solid defensive team and that should help them in the conference tournament. It also helped them with what they did to hold Niagara to just 9-of-26 at the rim in the first meeting. Niagara is shooting 35.5% from 3 in conference play, which ranks second, but when you put them on the road in league action, they’re shooting just 29.6%. They are much more comfortable in their own gym, but that’s not the case today.

Pick: Mount St. Mary’s -6.5

The post College Basketball Picks for Friday, February 20 from Adam Burke appeared first on VSiN.