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College Basketball Odds, Picks & Predictions: Friday (3/1)

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March has finally arrived, which means the “madness” will soon ensue. Several teams have already wrapped up regular season conference championships, and many other games this weekend will be important for bubble teams’ resumes and for seeding in conference tournaments and the NCAA tournament.

Friday’s small 26-game college basketball slate serves as a perfect appetizer to a loaded weekend of games. Among the high-profile games today, the Ivy League will be the primary focus, as only the top four teams get invited to the postseason tournament. While Cornell, Princeton, and Yale have all punched their tickets with a 9-2 league record, Brown (5-6), Harvard (5-6), and Columbia (4-7) all continue to battle for that coveted fourth spot.

Can we continue our 3-0 run from yesterday?

Read on for Friday’s College Basketball best bets.

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Friday’s College Basketball Best Bets

(Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)

Columbia @ Princeton (-13) | O/U 143.5 (-115/-105) 

Columbia is the host of this year’s Ivy League tournament, and starts the weekend line game behind Brown and Harvard for a spot in the field. However, with the Bears and Crimson playing each other tonight, winning at Princeton is imperative so as not to fall two games behind the winner of that Ivy tilt.

Princeton also has plenty to play for as it is locked in a three-way tie atop the standings, and winning the regular season title would mean only having to beat either Yale or Cornell (and possibly not both) en route to punching its ticket to the NCAA tournament. With so much on the line for both teams, we should see a defensive effort similar to the first meeting between these teams, when 132 points were scored in a 70-62 Princeton victory.

In that game, Columbia and Princeton combined to shoot 13-of-46 (28.3%) from the 3-point line, and neither team mustered even 1.0 points per possession. The Tigers forced the Lions into 14 turnovers, an issue that has plagued Columbia all season, as they rank sixth in Ivy League play in turnover rate. We again expect a Princeton defense that holds conference opponents to 32% shooting from beyond the arc to frustrate a Columbia squad that makes a league-best 38.2% of its shots from the 3-point line, while the Lions’ disruptive defense (second in the league in turnover rate forced) should bother Princeton as well.

The Under has cashed in eight of Princeton’s 11 league games, and we expect a locked-in defensive efforts from both teams will ensure it cashes again.

Bet: Under 143.5 (-105)

Dayton (-1) @ Loyola Chicago | O/U 136.5 (-110/-110)

While many conference matchups this late in the season are rematches from games played earlier, this is the first meeting between Dayton and Loyola Chicago, and we expect the offenses to have the advantage in this first matchup.

Loyola Chicago allows the fourth-lowest percentage of all D-I teams inside the arc (43.2%), and while that may lower the ceiling of Flyers leading scorer DaRon Holmes (20.0 points per game), it should not ultimately deter Dayton’s chances of a high-scoring game overall, as it gets the 12th-fewest percentage of its points (45.3%) of all A-10 teams from inside the arc in league play.

Under Porter Moses, Loyola Chicago had a reputation of a slow-tempo team that looked to grind games out in the half court. However, Drew Valentine has the Ramblers playing much faster, as they play at the league’s third-fastest tempo (113th nationally), and their ball movement is exquisite, as they rank fourth nationally in assists per made field goal (64.2%). Loyola Chicago has averaged 75.2 points per game over its last five home games (all wins), and though it turns the ball over at the highest rate in the A-10 (19.1% turnover rate), that weakness should not be compounded much by a Dayton defense that ranks 11th in the league in that regard.

The Over is 13-8-1 in Dayton’s 22 games as favorites this season, and has cashed in nine of Loyola Chicago’s 15 league games, as opposed to just three of its 12 non-conference games.

Bet: Over 136.5 (-110)

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

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