College basketball best bets today
Five games are on the men’s college basketball slate today, as we’ll get CIT and CBI action throughout the day. The first game actually tips off at Noon ET between Cleveland State and High Point and ends with Fort Wayne and Tarleton State. The pickings are slim for college basketball best bets today to be sure.
We’ve got all eight Sweet 16 previews posted for Thursday and Friday, so I encourage you to check those out in our March Madness Hub, which features previews and predictions for every game, plus a wide assortment of betting tools and tips.
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 a look for these or any other college basketball games today have your interest. Check out the Tracking Sheet for this season’s results and our college basketball home page for more CBB content.
Here is one college basketball best bet for today.
Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publish.
Fort Wayne Mastodons vs. Tarleton State Texans (-5.5, 151.5)
7 p.m. ET
This is the second semifinal of the CIT Tournament, as the winner will advance to play Norfolk State in the Championship Game. Fort Wayne beat Bowling Green last Wednesday by a 77-75 count to earn a trip to Stephenville, Texas to take on Tarleton State. The Texans beat Texas Southern and Abilene Christian on back-to-back days to earn a spot in this game.
Tarleton State has been excellent on offense in this tournament thus far, scoring 1.165 and 1.252 points per possession in the 82-71 win over Texas Southern and the 86-59 win over Abilene Christian. Fort Wayne had 1.049 PPP against Bowling Green, but they missed some bunnies, finishing just 18-of-31 at the rim.
I’m looking at Over 151.5 in this one. These two teams both have TO% marks of 20% or higher, so we could see some transition offense in this game. Fort Wayne comes from the Horizon League, where not a lot of teams play in-your-face pressure defense and Tarleton State does. I also think Tarleton’s defensive shooting numbers have been propped up a bit by the fact that the WAC wasn’t a very good offensive conference, whereas a lot of teams in the Horizon are pretty good on offense.
Fort Wayne fits that description, as they rank in the 50s in 2P% and the mid-40s in 3P%. They also like to bomb away from 3 with a 42.4% 3P Rate. Teams in the WAC only combined to shoot 32.7% from 3, so I think that’s another area where Tarleton’s numbers are a little bit inflated on defense.
The Mastodons have allowed a 63.3% FG% on Close Twos, so I could see the Texans getting inside and having some success, especially if they can get some run-outs in transition. Fort Wayne is also a top-40 team in tempo and I think they’ll look to push it here. Ten of Tarleton’s last 15 games have featured at least 70 possessions, so they’ve played a bit faster in the back part of the season.
Pick: Over 151.5
