Top College Basketball Picks Wednesday, January 13th (2021)
While yesterday’s schedule was highlighted by the top-10 battle in the Big Ten between Wisconsin and Michigan, we were deprived of another opportunity to see two of the country’s best teams when the West Virginia-Baylor game was postponed due to complications related to COVID-19. Though today’s slate has just one ranked versus ranked matchup between No. 15 Texas Tech and No. 4 Texas, there are plenty of interesting conference battles that will be big for teams’ resumes come March.
Here are three picks for Wednesday.
YTD: 52-48-1
All odds via BettingPros consensus
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Auburn at Georgia (-1.5): 7:00 PM ET
Both Auburn and Georgia are desperate for a win as the two schools have lost seven consecutive games between them. Though neither comes into this game in great form, Georgia is still licking their wounds from a 30-point blowout loss at Arkansas while Auburn can build off of their best offensive performance of the season, even if the result was a four-point loss to Alabama.
Auburn scored 90 points and shot 46.8% from the field against the Crimson Tide. The biggest reason for optimism entering this game is the emergence of freshman guard Sharife Cooper. Cooper had been sitting out the first 12 games of the season as he awaited the NCAA’s decision on his eligibility. Saturday against Alabama was his debut, and he dazzled with a 26-point and nine-assist effort. Cooper gives this Auburn offense explosiveness that it had lacked through the first 11 games, and we will likely see the Tigers play much better basketball in the conference with his presence on the floor. Look for their resurgence to start with a road win at Georgia.
Northwestern at Ohio State (-7): 7:00 PM ET
Northwestern started conference play like gangbusters, winning three straight games over Michigan State, Indiana, and Ohio State. Since then, they have lost their last three conference games by an average of 19.7 PPG and now enter a brutal part of their schedule with three of the next four games on the road.
Ohio State lost 71-70 at Northwestern in a game where they shot just 4-for-20 from three-point range. Though they remain the worst three-point shooting team in the conference, they are buoyed by the fact that they are the best in the conference at defending the three-point line and are also the best offensive rebounding team in the conference. Northwestern is likely to pack the paint and dare Ohio State to beat them from the outside once again, but the Buckeyes are coming off one of their better shooting efforts of the season when they hit 41.7% of their threes against Rutgers. Look for that momentum to carry over into tonight’s contest and for the Buckeyes to add to Northwestern’s recent woes.
Tulsa at Wichita State (-1.5): 9:00 PM ET
This AAC battle between Tulsa and Wichita State is a matchup of two of the conference’s best defensive teams. The Golden Hurricane and the Shockers are the two best teams in the conference at defending the three-point line and rank No. 1 and No. 3 respectively in terms of effective field goal percentage defense. They each rank outside the top 200 in KenPom’s adjusted tempo, which means this will be a slow-paced half-court game with limited opportunities in transition.
Neither team ranks in the top 160 in the country in free-throw percentage, which is key in a game that is projected to be as close as this one. Barring no overtime, it is difficult to imagine both teams reaching 60 points, which makes an under for a game projected in the 130s a no-brainer.
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Mike Spector is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @MikeSpector01.