Top 3 College Basketball Betting Odds, Picks & Predictions: Monday (11/11)
The second week of the college basketball season begins today, and we have already seen plenty of exciting action to this point. North Carolina and Kansas played a thriller at Allen Fieldhouse and Cooper Flagg looks every bit the No. 1 projected pick in the NBA Draft. Elsewhere, the Big East Conference for the most part has not impressed, as Villanova, Butler, and Seton Hall have all suffered bad losses to this point.
What do we expect from the start of a new week in college basketball?
Read on for our top College Basketball Best Bets and picks Monday, November 11.
Monday's Best College Basketball Bets
(College basketball best odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)
Grambling (+23.5) @ Florida (-23.5) | O/U 150.5 (-110/-110)
Grambling was already one of my favorite under-the-radar teams to back early in the season, and it did not need a two-point loss at No. 24 Ole Miss (a game in which it led by 12 at one point) to prove its legitimacy.
Grambling was already a team on the rise after making its first NCAA Tournament as a Division I squad last year, even beating Montana State in a First Four game. The scary thing is the Tigers’ top player, Kintavious Dozier (13.0 PPG last season) was not even the team’s leading scorer in the near upset of Ole Miss.
Grambling shot more free throws than the Rebels and had nearly as many bench points (out-scored 15 to 13), and now the Tigers face arguably a weaker SEC opponent in Florida.
The Gators defense was leaky to end last season (79 or more points allowed in each of the final seven games). Florida also lost a couple key starters from last year’s team, and was ranked outside the top 60 in 247sports’ ranking of talent added through recruiting and the transfer portal.
PICK: Grambling +23.5
Buffalo (+22) @ Notre Dame (-22) | O/U 148.5 (-112/-108)
The “glass half empty†look on Notre Dame entering the season was that it finished just 13-20 in Micah Shrewsberry’s first year on the job. But the “glass half full†look would suggest he did a great job keeping the team together in winning six of the final 10 games last year. In addition, Shrewsberry guided Penn State to a nine-win improvement (14 to 23) in his first two years with the Nittany Lions, including an NCAA Tournament appearance the second year.
One thing the Fighting Irish certainly do not lack is experience, with six players who started at least 12 games to go with three senior transfers. Markus Burton chipped in 18 points and five assists in the season-opening 29-point win over Stonehill, which were right on his average of 17.5 points and 4.8 assists last year.
I am backing Notre Dame to start the season with a second straight cover against Buffalo.
PICK: Notre Dame -22
Western Michigan (+16.5) @ Butler (-16.5) | O/U 145 (-110/-110)
Butler followed up a tight seven-point victory against Missouri State with a surprising two-point home loss to Austin Peay at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
The Bulldogs lost as 17.5-point favorites, but I expect a bounceback similar to what Villanova had with a 91-54 win over NJIT the game after suffering an embarrassing 90-80 home loss against Columbia. There is too much experience on the Bulldogs roster with Iowa transfer Patrick McCaffery leading the way to keep producing underwhelming results. Meanwhile, Western Michigan was projected to finish 10th out of 12 teams in the preseason MAC poll.
PICK: Butler -16.5
Mike Spector is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @MikeSpector01.