Best bets for Feb 7 college hoops include Yale, Illinois, and more

It’s a real short board tonight in college basketball, but we still found a few games we like. Here’s our list of the best and the worst

Yale -5.5 over Harvard

There’s some value here! Yale is sneaky good at 16-4, with a loss to a ranked Penn State by just two in Happy Valley, and also beat Clemson by nine on the road. The Bulldogs are undefeated at home as well, but they haven’t played anyone as good as the Crimson yet. It shouldn’t matter with guard Azar Swain and a team with no freshmen in the rotation.

Also there’s nothing confirmed yet, but the rumors are senior guard Bryce Aiken is out for Harvard. That’s enough to push this to the to the Yalies by a bunch.

Illinois -3 vs. Maryland

For all the reasons explained here.

Kent State vs. Northern Illinois: Under 132

You know it’s a rough night when KenPom says this is the third-most exciting game in college basketball this evening. But the NIU Huskies are... slow. Very slow. Even at home.

They’re 319th in adjusted tempo, and 251st in adjusted offense. And they’re at home against a Kent State team that’s 170th in tempo themselves. This is pretty boring basketball to everyone outside of alumni, friends, and family. Hopefully the teams will be just as bored, and not score too much. These teams trend under, just hope there’s no overtime.

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