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College Basketball Odds, Picks & Predictions: Monday (2/12)

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For those looking for ways to spend their Super Bowl winnings, college basketball takes center stage with a 16-game slate in the wake of football season ending. Among those games are two matchups between Big 12 teams and one from the ACC, and we preview one of those games along with an under-the-radar rematch from earlier in the season between two teams from the Southland Conference.

Read on for Monday’s College Basketball best bets.

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Monday's College Basketball Best Bets

(Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)

Texas A&M Corpus Christi (-2.5) @ Nicholls St. | O/U 139.5 (-102/-118) 

Nicholls State has a massive week ahead of it, with two home games against two of the three teams in the Southland that it is either tied with (at 7-3 in league play) or trailing in the standings. Nicholls has won back-to-back home games by seven or more points, and its only loss on its home floor was a two-point overtime loss to a Lamar team that is also 7-3 in conference play.

Nicholls' almost exclusive zone defense is difficult to prepare for on just one day's rest, and it had covered two of its three games this season in that split. The Colonels managed their second-lowest point total in league play in a 69-59 road loss to Texas A&M CC earlier in the season. Their offensive struggles did not stem from a lack of perimeter shooting (they shot 40% from 3-point range), but rather a 12-for-36 effort inside the arc. We do not expect Nicholls to replicate that poor performance, given that it owns the best 2-point shooting percentage (53.4%) in conference play. In addition, the Islanders get the second-highest percentage of their points from the free throw line in league play, but shoot just 68.6% as a team, which could bite them in a close game against a Colonels team that makes better than 72% of their free throws on the season.

Bet: Nicholls St. +2.5 (-110)

West Virginia @ TCU (-13) | O/U 149 (-112/-108)

West Virginia has not won outside of Morgantown all season, and since its surprising 91-85 home upset of Kansas, the Mountaineers have lost four of five games with a -62 point differential in that span.

TCU is coming off a 12-point road loss at Hilton Coliseum, but Iowa State is one of the few teams in the country that can match the Horned Frogs' physicality and keep them off the offensive glass. The same cannot be said of West Virginia, as TCU should have a massive advantage on the backboards with a top-21 offensive rebounding rate compared to West Virginia's sub-200 offensive rebounding rate allowed. The Mountaineers' poor transition defense is also a big reason they rank dead-last in the Big 12 in adjusted defensive efficiency and second-worst in 2-point percentage allowed, which is a huge red flag against a TCU offense that averages just 15.7 seconds per offensive possession (25th-shortest on average in D-I). 

TCU owns home wins against ranked Houston and Texas Tech squads, and is 4-2 ATS off a loss. Conversely, West Virginia is 0-5 ATS as a road underdog, and we expect it to get outmuscled en route to a sixth straight non-cover.

Bet: TCU -13 (-105)

Make sure to check out our other best bets for Monday:

Mike Spector is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @MikeSpector01.

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