Top College Basketball Picks for Monday, December 6 (2021)
We finished the week with a bang on Friday, winning all three plays in the article for December 3. With such a small slate in college basketball, finding three games with value will be extremely difficult. Play today’s game with a bit of caution, knowing there’s not much that I completely love today.
All odds via BettingPros consensus
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Mercer vs. Coastal Carolina: Coastal Carolina -3 (-110)
(7:00 PM ET tip)
The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers have looked extremely impressive to start the season. Coastal Carolina has only played six games on the year but has wins against South Carolina and, most recently, Winthrop at home. The game against South Carolina wasn’t even close too.
Coastal Carolina defeated South Carolina 80-56 and beat up Winthrop, 74-64. Now they’ll stay at home to take on Mercer. Mercer has played three more games than Coastal Carolina but lost to Winthrop earlier this year and had a terrible loss to Middle Tennessee on a neutral court earlier this season.
The Bears are coming around with wins over Kennesaw State and Georgia State, but overall, Coastal Carolina’s defense, especially against the three-point ball, should make a huge difference. Mercer is shooting the three at a high rate while nailing nearly 35 percent of them. Meanwhile, Coastal Carolina is holding opponents to just 27 percent from deep.
Mercer’s defense has been dreadful in the early going, allowing a 55.7 percent effective field goal percentage. Coastal Carolina hasn’t been the best offense, but going up against Mercer at home, Coastal should be fine offensively, knowing how poorly Mercer has played so far.
Columbia vs. Colgate: Columbia +21 (-110)
(7:00 PM ET tip)
Colgate is extremely good. Don’t get it twisted. But this season, the Raiders have hit a hiccup. Colgate is currently 3-5 on the year with losses to Cornell and Niagara, to name a few. The Raiders have lost three straight games, and although they’ve defeated Syracuse, it took 100 points to do so.
I get Columbia is one of the worst teams in the nation. They’ve been blown out by UMBC and Lafayette but are coming off a home win against Maine. They’ve also stuck around against Boston College and Lehigh and would’ve covered against Marist and Fordham.
Twenty-one points just seem like a little too much. Colgate should dominate from long-range, but I wouldn’t anticipate a high amount of second chance opportunities for Colgate on their misses. So give me all those 21 points to start.
New Mexico State vs. New Mexico: New Mexico +4 (-110)
(9:00 PM ET tip)
The New Mexico Lobos already defeated the New Mexico State Aggies on the road last week. Now the Lobos will welcome New Mexico State to The Pit in what should be another highly intensive game on the offensive end. The first meeting ended with New Mexico winning 101-94. There were over 70 foul shots taken in that game.
Every New Mexico game is sloppy. They are a scrappy bunch that struggles on the glass. But if they’re able to stay aggressive and win the turnover battle, there’s a good chance the Lobos continue their success against the Aggies moving forward.
At the end of the day, this game is a toss-up. It’s a rivalry game between two teams that already played against one another last week. Both teams have tape, and both teams have a plan. Now it’s time to see which team executes more. I’ll side with Richard Pitino’s squad to execute better.
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Jason Radowitz is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Jason, check out his archive and follow him @Jason_Radowitz.