Navigate

College Basketball Odds, Picks & Predictions: Monday (1/22)

by |

After a week in which four of the AP top five teams lost a combined five games, this week’s rankings will look pretty similar to last week, with the top five going a combined 8-1 (the only loss was No. 3 Kansas’s road loss to West Virginia). Kansas has its first opportunity to rebound from its third loss of the season when it hosts Cincinnati at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, which is one of 16 games on Monday’s college basketball slate.

Read on for Monday’s College Basketball best bets.

Get instant alerts when a line reaches your target via the BettingPros App >>

Monday's College Basketball Best Bets

(Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)

Lehigh at Colgate (-12.5) | O/U 144 (-110/-110) 

There is a lot of familiarity between Lehigh and Colgate this season, as the two Patriot League rivals returned the 29th and 28th most minutes in the country from last year’s squads, respectively. That may not be good news for the Mountain Hawks against the three-time defending Patriot League champion Raiders, as Colgate won both regular season matchups against Lehigh by at least 16 points, including an 81-53 thrashing on its home floor. Last year’s Raiders squad led the nation in 3-point shooting (40.5%), and while this year’s team is not as dangerous from beyond the arc (35.4% ranks 98th), perimeter defense is still not a strength of Lehigh’s, who has allowed opponents to shoot 37.9% (347th) from 3-point range. This is a get-right game for Colgate in terms of 3-point shooting, and it has been much better from beyond the arc (39.1%) in league play.

Two of Lehigh’s five wins this season have come against non-Division-I opponents, so perhaps Brett Reed’s philosophy to play a lot of guys (the Mountain Hawks rank 27th in bench minutes) and to play fast (29th in adjusted tempo) is counter-intuitive to the team’s success. Meanwhile, Colgate has won five of six and is one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the country, allowing opponents to secure just 24.8% of their misses (24th-best in the country).

Colgate is 4-2 ATS in conference games this season and has covered 16 of 27 Patriot League games since the start of last season. And while Lehigh is a solid 8-1 ATS as underdogs this season, it is just 3-3 overall in conference games, and we do not expect the Mountain Hawks to overcome the talent gap in this matchup.

Pick: Colgate -12.5 (-110)

Cincinnati @ Kansas (-8.5)| O/U 146 (-105/-115)

After Kansas’s first two losses this year, the Jayhawks responded with spirited defensive efforts, holding two current top 15 teams (Tennessee and Oklahoma) to 60 and 66 points, respectively. Hall of Fame head coach Bill Self will certainly have his team’s attention on a quick turnaround, and we expect a much better defensive effort than the one that led West Virginia to score 1.28 points per possession and 57.1% (12-of-21) from beyond the arc.

Kansas has had lackadaisical defensive efforts this year, but this is still a team that walls off the paint well, allowing opponents to shoot just 44.7% inside the arc (23rd in the country). And though Cincinnati ranks in the top 68 in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency, it has struggled in Big 12 play, ranking 12th in the conference in that same metric. Often the Bearcats’ best offense is securing its own misses, which they do at the 18th-highest rate in the country). But Hunter Dickinson and Kansas’s solid frontcourt should negate that strength, and the Jayhawks should turn in a much better defensive game at home in front of its raucous home fans than it did in Morgantown.

Bill Self’s teams are 7-2 ATS after losses since the start of last season, and the Jayhawks still may cover tonight, but our best angle is taking the Bearcats’ team total Under. The Under is 3-1 in Cincinnati’s four games coming off a loss (which it is after losing its last game to Oklahoma), and the Under is also 8-5 in Cincinnati’s 13 games against ranked opponents since the start of the 2021 season.

Pick: Cincinnati Team Total Under 68.5 (-115)

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

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RadioPublic | Breaker | Castbox | Pocket Casts

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

Try Premium for FREE in our mobile app

BettingPros App