CBB DFS Pick 3 – Thursday February 7th
The NFL season is finally over, which means we are almost to the best time of the year for College Basketball. In the next few months we will see the regular season wrap up, conference tournies getting underway, and then finally March Madness will begin. During that time Awesemo.com plans to unveil some additional content centered around CBB DFS as well as Sport Betting as we continue to grow our platform. Make sure to follow our @AwesemoOdds twitter account for all the latest content and updates.
This article is going to be focused on the upcoming College Basketball slate and will highlight a few CBB DFS players that stand out, and a few potential wagers against the spread. Feel free to jump in our new Sports betting slack channel for additional information and conversation about the upcoming nights game in CBB and other sports throughout the season.
Biggest game on the slate
Washington at Arizona 9 PM EST ESPN2 – Not any marquee Top 25 matchups on the slate tonight even though there is a ton of games, but the one that caught my eye is this Pac 12 Matchup. Washington is 9-0 in conference play which is impressive regardless of how weak you think the Pac-12 is. The Huskies rely on very stingy defense and really have shown limited signs of weakness, even on the road where most teams struggle. They travel to Arizona tonight which is one of their toughest remaining games and one they would have to lose in order to make the Pac-12 a legit race down the stretch. Jaylen Nowell does the heavy lifting for WU as he rarely leaves the floor and leads them in scoring with 16.6 PPG. One injury note to monitor is Noah Dickerson so is a key in the frontcourt is currently doubtful with a sprained ankle which could test the Huskies depth.
Arizona is an entirely new team from the Deandre Ayton led squad they were last year, so naturally there has been some growing pains in Tucson. They sit at 14-8 and 5-4 in the conference yet are only a 1.5 home underdog against this Washington team. They have plenty of talent, led by Sophomore guard Brandon Randolph, who will be tasked with handling Nowell and finding a way to get enough points on the board tonight. Chase Jeter (Duke transfer) returned last game and provides needed frontcourt depth after sitting out a few games with injury, but Freshman guard Brandon Williams remains out with a knee issue.
Overall this game will come down to can Arizona find buckets when they need to, as I expect Washington’s defense to dictate the game. The O/U sits at 134 which seems spot on to me and I do think this game is played in the 60’s and should be a relatively close one.
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CBB DFS Targets
Lamar Stevens – Penn St – $8600 DK – After burning the edges Penn St finally broke thru and won a game in conference, taking down Northwestern on the road. They now travel to Columbus to take on Ohio State, which is certainly a winnable game for the Nittany Lions. If they are to compete it will be because of Lamar Stevens who has taken control of the team and really is a force on the inside. His 19 PPG with 7.7 rebounds is a nice clip and he chips in with a few assists/blocks/steals in most games which obviously add up quickly for DFS. The other nice thing is he plays a ton for a big man, as he only sits a few minutes a game at most and finds way to stay out of foul trouble. That 35 minute + projection is huge and gives him plenty of time to rack up the points and pay off the 8.6k tag. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Penn State give OSU all they could handle tonight and if that is the case you have to assume Stevens is at the center of it all for the road team.
Brandon Randolph – Arizona – $6100 DK – I just mentioned him when breaking down the Wash/Zona game and think that he’s going to be heavily relied on regardless of game script tonight. The minutes will be there barring foul trouble and it does feel like a buy low spot when you look at Randolph’s shooting. In the last 4 games he has gone 6/17, 4/16, 4/11, and 5/15 from the field which is great volume and a pretty awful percentage. Now maybe he just sucks at shooting, that’s always a possibility, but I still think that type of shot volume provides big upside when talking about DFS. I expect him to easily eclipse that 10+ shot mark and if he can just be a little more efficient he should be in line for a good showing against a 6.1k tag.
Games Against the Spread
East Tennessee St -1 – ETSU gets Wofford tonight who is still unbeaten in the Southern conference and is certainly a team we could see in March. However ETSU needs this game if they have any hope of catching Wofford and are a quality team themselves sitting at 9-2 in conference play and 19-5 overall. These two teams met way earlier in the year and Wofford cruised, but that was in Wofford and I don’t take a ton away from that in terms of how it impacts tonight. It’s a clash of styles with Wofford sporting one of the highest powered offenses in the country against a more defensive minded ETSU attack who wants to keep the game from getting out of control scoring wise. I think ETSU can control the tempo and limit Wofford from really getting out in transition which is key, and they will hand the Terriers their first conference loss tonight.
Arizona +1.5 – Washington has continued to defy the odds, but I think they finally go down tonight in the McKale center. Arizona may not be their usual talented self, but they are playing hard and now come back home after a tough 3 game road stretch. We just saw them give it everything they had against ASU on the road and clearly they won’t be intimidated by this Huskies team. The spread is a virtual pick’em, but I grabbed the 1.5 early and may continue to hit this line as the day goes on if I like the line movement that happens.
If you have any questions find me in the sports betting channel on the Awesemo.com premium slack chat or @JazzrazDFS on twitter.
