It’s March, which means the entire sports betting world is locked in on college basketball.
Some conferences are deep in their tournaments, while others are wrapping up their regular season and sorting out the final seeding for their tournaments which will start this upcoming week.
If you’re looking for picks for today’s action, I have you covered.
Let’s dive into my top bets for Saturday.
Best college basketball bets today
- Arkansas -4 vs. Kentucky
- Pitt +7.5 vs. Miami
- Arizona +5 vs. UCLA
Arkansas -4 vs. Kentucky
Kentucky’s hot streak came to an end on Wednesday, when they lost outright at home to the Vanderbilt Commodores. Now, they face the Arkansas Razorbacks in their final regular game of the season, and I’m willing to lay the points with the Hogs.
Arkansas beat them 88-73 earlier in the season, and I expect a similar performance today. The Razorbacks’ interior defense is going to be the difference maker. Both teams rank inside the top 31 in the country in two-point shot rate, but it’s Arkansas who is much better at defending those types of shots.
The Razorbacks are 30th in opponent two-point field goal percentage, keeping teams to shooting 45.9% from two-point range, while Kentucky comes in at 100th in that stat.
Give me the Hogs to win and cover in the SEC regular season finale.
Pitt +7.5 vs. Miami
This spread is way too big for two teams who rank close in most stats you want to take a look at.
There are even some areas where the Panthers outrank the Hurricanes, especially on defense. For example, Pitt ranks 133rd in defensive efficiency while Miami comes in at 178th. Pitt is also 75th in opponent effective field goal percentage, and the Canes are 198th.
The last time these two teams played, Pitt won via a 71-68 decision. They dominated Miami in the rebounding department, recording nine more boards including 12 offensive rebounds on their way to victory.
If Pitt can put up even close to the same level of performance against Miami, they may not just cover, they may win the game outright.
Give me the Panthers with the points.
Arizona +5 vs. UCLA
No. 8 Arizona will hit the road to take on No. 4 UCLA for the final Pac-12 regular season. Both of these teams will be in the NCAA Tournament, and many are expecting them to face-off once again in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
The UCLA Bruins are winners of nine-straight and have locked up the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. With that being said, these two teams are way too similar in terms of ability for either one of them to be 5-point favorites.
That’s especially the case when you understand that Arizona is the much better shooting team in this matchup. The Wildcats are fourth in the country in effective field goal percentage, while UCLA comes in at 141st.
The Bruins thrive in many other areas, but their average shooting numbers will cost them against the best teams in the country, especially when it comes to covering a five-point spread.
I’ll take the points with the Wildcats.
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Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
