Thursday's College Basketball Best Bets: Three Picks for Thursday Night's College Basketball

Thursday's College Basketball Best Bets: Two Picks for Thursday Night's College Basketball

Nicholls State vs. McNeese State Predictions

Unless you bet college basketball on a daily basis, you may have never heard of either of these teams but one thing teams in this conference do is play extremely fast. Southland teams for some reason, play at a very fast and frenetic pace and teams in the conference also have some of the highest foul rates in the country. Nicholls St is ranked 318th in defensive foul rate and McNeese St is ranked 340th in that same category so there are always a lot of free throws in their games. Nicholls St is also currently 22nd in the nation at 15.7 seconds per possession and McNeese St is 55th at 16.5 seconds per possession so these teams also take shots very early into the shot clock. I was fairly surprised that this total was set in the high 140s and low 150s given how fast these teams play and how often they foul. I think there is a lot of value in the over here tonight, so I am rolling with 1H o70.5 -110 and full game o149.5 -110 (BetMGM) for a double play on the over tonight.

Nicholls State vs. McNeese State Picks

• PICK: 1H o70.5 @ -110 (Bet $110 to win $100)
• PICK: Full Game o149.5 @ -110 (Bet $110 to win $100)

North Dakota vs. UMKC Prediction

North Dakota is one of the worst teams in the nation this year as they are currently ranked 350th in defensive efficiency, 352nd in defensive effective field goal percentage, 337th in defensive 3-point percentage, and 342nd in defensive 2-point percentage so they don't really do anything well defensively. While UMKC isn't exactly an offensive juggernaut, they have been playing well on that side of the ball lately as they have scored at least 76 points in each of their last 5 games and over 80 points in those games as well. They have also been playing very well as a team overall as they have gone 8-2 in their last 10 games including 2 impressive wins over Western Illinois by 8 and 9 points. North Dakota also nearly defeated UMKC in their meeting earlier this year so I think there has to be some added motivation here from the Roos (UMKC's mascot). I think UMKC should be able to get whatever they want offensively and think they will start the 1H out strong so I am rolling with UMKC 1H -2.5 at -105.

North Dakota vs. UMKC Pick

PICK: UMKC -2.5 1H @ -105 (Bet $110 to win $100)