Welcome to Feast Week! Tis the season for holiday tournaments all around the country and points beyond. After another 2-1 day on Sunday, I'm now 4-2 in my Sunday/Monday rotation within this space. Let's see where today's action takes us. Good luck and I hope everyone has a safe and healthy Thanksgiving!
Drexel vs Texas-Arlington
Drexel is a team I'm keeping an eye on early this year but backing the Dragons violates one of my basic early-season tenants: avoid backing teams playing their first game away from home. So what is the attraction? The answer lies when examining the UT-Arlington roster, where the Mavs saw six players that started 10 or more games depart. UTA is in complete rebuild mode, while Drexel enjoys some continuity, which is a big factor for me when evaluating mid/low-majors early in the season. Drexel already has a KenPom top-200 win over Old Dominion, while Arlington has yet to beat anyone in D1. The Dragons are the play.
College Basketball Best Bet: Drexel -3 (at PointsBet)
Nevada vs Tulane
This is a fantastic mid-major matchup between two teams inside the KenPom top-100. After being quite disappointing last year, Steve Alford looks to have Nevada retooled and playing harder as evident by being the No. 1 Effective FG% defense in the country thus far. I also like that the Wolfpack has already played both a road game and a game against another top-100 team, so they come in tested. I have a ton of respect for this Tulane team, and I believe they will be a team I back often the rest of the year. The reason I'm going against them today are for the same reasons I'm backing Nevada: the Green Wave has yet to leave home, and they have played (and crushed) only teams outside the top-300 so far. In a big step up in competition and a sizeable road trip to the Cayman Islands, I'll take the battle-tested Wolfpack getting more than a bucket.
College Basketball Best Bet: Nevada +3.5 (at FanDuel)
High Point vs Central Michigan
High Point was a winner for me earlier this season with an outright win over Wofford as a decent dog. The Panthers are well-stocked and well-coached with G.G. Smith taking over for his legendary father (Tubby) last season. High Point also has a tough road game under its belt -- a tight contest at UNLV last week. CMU is a team with the dreaded combination of playing fast and playing poor defensively, a combo High Point can exploit with its excellent 3-point shooting. The Panthers are No. 11 in 3-point percentage in the country (43.6%) and have the talent to overwhelm the Chips if CMU chooses to try to run and gun. This one could get ugly.
College Basketball Best Bet: High Point -4 (at DraftKings)
Monday College Basketball Best Bets:
Here's a recap of my best college basketball bets for Sunday night:
Drexel (-3)
Nevada (+3.5)
High Point (-4)
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