College Basketball still is very early in the season, but there are a ton of tournaments that provide us with interesting games to breakdown. This means we have games throughout the day on certain dates, as well as quality night slates to attack. On Thursday, we have a nine-game night slate to breakdown, in addition to the matchups that are being played basically all afternoon. Let’s get into some CBB DFS Picks.
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Best game on the slate
Texas at Georgetown: Texas -6, O/U 142.5
There is a double header today at Madison Square Garden and this is the first game on the docket. After this one, we have Duke versus Cal where unsurprisingly, the Blue Devils are a sizable favorite. However, this first game figures to be a competitive back-and-forth affair between two teams with some talent on their rosters.
Texas sits at 4-0 on the season and that includes a quality win against Purdue. The 22nd-ranked team is somewhat methodical in terms of pace, and relies on defense, which isn’t surprising considering Shaka Smart is the head coach. Personnel-wise, they are led by a pair of guards in Matt Coleman and Andrew Jones , but have a deep roster with a bunch of contributors in both the back and frontcourts.
Georgetown, on the other hand, had a decent core of returning production, but so far this year, they’ve looked a bit sluggish. They’ve started slow in basically every game and were soundly beaten at home against Penn State, which is the lone loss so far on the schedule. They will need to be much more efficient and limit the turnovers against this type of defense if they want a chance for a quality win here at MSG. So far in the season, the Hoyas’ best player has been North Carolina State transfer Omer Yurtseven. The big man is averaging 17 points with 12.5 boards per game and he looks to be the go-to player for this team, pending he can stay out of foul trouble.
CBB DFS Targets
On the CBB DFS side tonight, we have an eight-game slate to breakdown. Most of the matchups are against mediocre teams, but we also have some blue bloods on the schedule with Duke and UCLA both playing.
T.J Gibbs 6.4k DraftKings – Notre Dame
Notre Dame sits at 4-1 on the season and come into this game as a 7.5-point favorite vs Toledo. The over.under is a reasonable 139.5 and Notre Dame has several players banged up, including their leader in John Mooney. Currently Mooney is questionable and if he sits, Gibbs is going to be asked to carry a large workload. In the last two games, Gibbs has logged 34 and 36 minutes while taking 11 and 19 shots, which is the volume we want to see. Even if Mooney returns, I think Gibbs is going to be relied on as a key contributor here and against a capable Toledo team, the blowout risk is minimal. Price-wise, he is reasonable and with a lot of games that have the potential to get out of hand, this is one to target for CBB DFS.
Jalen Hill 7.3k DraftKings – UCLA
UCLA gets the nightcap as they tip at 11 p.m. EST out in Pauley Pavilion. UCLA is a 12-point favorite at home against Hofstra and will look to move to 5-0 on the season. So far, UCLA hasn’t played any top-end teams, but Hofstra certainly doesn’t qualify as that so another win is expected. The season is young, but so far Hofstra has been god-awful at defense (299th, per Kenpom) and that is something we can take advantage of while they are listed on the DFS slate. Jalen Hill so far this season has been boom or bust relative to DFS, but that isn’t the worst thing as the ceiling is there.
He comes into the game averaging 13 and eight, but the real range of outcomes is with his field goal attempts. In two games, he was limited with only three shots each, while in the other two games, he hoisted nine and 13, which led to massive outputs. With Hofstra’s frontcourt an issue, this is another spot where I’m comfortable taking Hill even with the volume being all over the place to start the season. He has a reasonable price and if this game avoids a blowout he should be in line for a potentially monster College Basketball DFS output for this salary.
College Basketball Game against the Spread
My Pick: North Florida +15 against Iowa
Who? Yeah, I get that almost everyone’s first reaction is going to be who is North Florida and why are you suggesting betting on them This is a team that plays out of the Atlantic Sun and really only would get recognition if they won the conference tourney and punched their ticket to the Big Dance. However, I’ve noticed them throughout the regular season, as I think they are one of the better small-school teams in the country.
North Florida returned 80% of their production from last year and they are an experienced group who has played a ton of top-tier teams over the years. They like to play fast, don’t mind launching threes and do their best to battle on the boards against bigger and stronger units. They will put up points with several capable scorers, so it will just be a matter of staying out of foul trouble and finding stops against Iowa. The over/under in this game sits at 157.5, which speaks to how both teams are going to want to play fast and put up points.
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On the other side, Iowa has bigger goals to the season and are 2-1 with the lone loss to DePaul. Since we are so early in the year, it is hard to tell how good this team is, but they did return a solid core of players. The leader so far has been center Luka Garza and his size is going to cause problems for the Ospreys. Garza is averaging 21 and 10 so far this season and if Iowa gets production around him, they will find themselves in the tournament once again. Bringing it back to tonight, I still think Iowa is a team in search of an identity to some extent, especially on defense. There is no doubt offensively they should have their way against North Florida, but with both teams having capable scorers, this one should stay closer than most would think.
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