I’m not in love with Friday’s college hoops card, but do have one game circled for a potential play. That said, we have some spectacular games this weekend, so I’m going to go through bets on some big games for both Saturday and Sunday on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Be sure to follow along on Twitter, as news changes quickly, and live plays present themselves — @julianedlow.
Place your college basketball bets at DraftKings Sportsbook and bet online by downloading the DraftKings Sportsbook app.
Seton Hall +4 (-108) vs. Oregon
*Not available in all states
Seton Hall has a couple of tough losses on the young season, but is well tested in the early going. It covered in a one-point loss to Louisville in the opener, and then destroyed Iona by over 20 points in the second game. The Pirates lost as slight favorites in Rhode Island on Wednesday, but the final score isn’t indicative of how close the game was the majority of the way through. Oregon lost some key pieces during the offseason, most notably Payton Pritchard, who handled the ball nearly the entire game the last two years — that leaves a lot of responsibility for others now. Seton Hall is feeling the loss of Myles Powell, as well, but has enough capable scorers and size left over to be a very good team. I’m a believer in the Ducks long-term, but after watching a rusty eight-point loss to Missouri in the opener as 4.5-point favorites, it’s tough to trust them now. Maybe they get the big bounce-back like Florida did on Thursday, but I’ll back the Pirates as this line grows.
Gonzaga -3.5 (-113) vs. Baylor
These two teams both won heavyweight battles in Indy on Wednesday night, and now we have the early season please of seeing No. 1 vs. No. 2 on a neutral floor on Saturday afternoon. National Championship vibes here. Baylor got the more impressive win on Wednesday, playing even with a top 5 team in Illinois for about 30 minutes, before blowing the game open and easily covering. The Zags were a different story against a gritty West Virginia squad. They started off slow and were down big early, and then five-star recruit Jalen Suggs went down with what looked like a very serious, potentially season-ending injury. The Zags battled back for the win, but didn’t cover. More importantly, Suggs somehow returned to the game, giving us the indication he should be fine for this one. Fading Baylor isn’t something I do comfortably, but I always want to back this Zags offense. Maybe when team totals roll around, I’ll be more comfortable in just backing the Zags to score, but for now I’m on the cover here.
Texas +2.5 (-110) vs. Villanova
While everyone else is watching NFL kickoff Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, I’ll have an eye on this one between the Longhorns and Wildcats. I gave this play out on the Panel B podcast on Thursday, but the line was Texas +5.5! The line quickly moved to 2.5 that afternoon (almost certainly due to the massive popularity of the podcast), and is now actually off the board. But I’m banking on it coming back at a similar price, and I actually like Texas on the moneyline. The Longhorns have looked spectacular in the early going, blowing out a top 25 team in Indiana, and getting by UNC in the Maui championship game, which was actually in North Carolina. The Longhorns return 99% of minutes played from last season, as we referenced in Wednesday’s article when we backed Texas over UNC. Villanova is a great team, but we’ve seen them struggle in a loss to Virginia Tech already. Texas is for real, and I’ll back them up to a pick’em here.
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is jedlow) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
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