Top College Basketball Picks for Tuesday, December 28 (2021)
The college basketball slate just got a little bit juicier today. With more than half of the games canceled today, there are still nine games to bet on tonight. That’s more than we’ve had in about a week. We’ll happily take what we can get, despite not being able to get all 30 games in.
Here are my top college basketball betting picks for Tuesday, December 28.
All odds via BettingPros consensus
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Notre Dame vs. Pittsburgh: Over 126 (-120)
(8:00 PM ET tip)
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Pittsburgh Panthers will play the most intriguing game on today’s slate. We’ve got two ACC teams playing a conference game. It could be much worse.
Notre Dame limits turnovers on offense and shoots plenty of three-point shots to begin the year. The Fighting Irish are scoring over 37 percent of their points from downtown are continue to shoot a high volume from downtown. Notre Dame is also hitting 76.5 percent from the foul line, despite not getting there a whole lot.
On the other hand, Notre Dame doesn’t defend the three all that well, allowing opponents to shoot over 37 percent from downtown. While Pittsburgh doesn’t shoot the long ball well or take a whole lot of them, if the Panthers get quality looks from long range, they’ll hit them. Pittsburgh also dominates the offensive glass and gets to the line at a very high rate this season.
Take the over.
Fresno State vs. Boise State: Fresno State +4.5
(9:00 PM ET tip)
Tonight’s game should be all about defense. Boise State is ranked in the top 20 in adjusted efficiency on the defensive end, while Fresno State isn’t too far behind Boise State with the 43rd best number in college basketball.
The difference in this game is likely to be foul shooting, after all. Both teams limit opponents to a very low effective field goal percentage while earning turnovers over 20 percent of the time. Each team is also terrific on the defensive glass, and both hold opponents to a low shooting percentage from long range and inside. These two defenses mirror each other.
However, Fresno State shoots 75.5 percent from the foul line, while Boise State shoots 60.7 percent from the charity stripe. If I’m going to get points with Fresno State, I’ll take it.
Yale vs. Saint Mary’s: Yale +12.5
(6:30 PM ET tip)
Yale hasn’t played in two weeks and ultimately lost their last two games to Iona and Monmouth. While those are tough losses, those two teams are terrific basketball teams. You’ll likely see both in the tournament in March.
The Bulldogs are looking for their first signature win of the season, which could come against Saint Mary’s. Yale won’t have many second chances on the boards, knowing how dominant Saint Mary’s has been on the defensive glass, but we do know that Yale will shoot a large number of threes. Yale could very much stay in this game if shots start to fall. The Bulldogs don’t turn the ball over at a high rate, and if that continues, the more attempts, the better.
St. Mary’s allows teams to shoot 34.2 percent from three, and they’ve faced many teams that love chucking it up. Yale is another one of those teams and will get quality looks. I like Yale to cover in this cross-country matchup.
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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.