College Basketball Picks: 2 Best Bets for Saturday's Games

College Basketball Picks: 2 Best Bets for Saturday's Games

We have a loaded slate today as always on Saturday in College Basketball, but two games have caught my attention for this evening. The first is a high-profile SEC matchup between Alabama and Kentucky and the second is a not so profile game in the Summit league between Oral Roberts and St Thomas.

Alabama vs Kentucky Prediction

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In this matchup, we have a Kentucky team who has been surging other than their one loss on the road to Auburn where they had some key players go down. They are 7-1 in their last 8 games including impressive wins on the road against Kansas, at home vs #22 Tennessee by nearly 30, and double-digit wins over Vanderbilt and UGA. Kentucky is a team who has been getting it done on the offensive end.

They are currently ranked 4th in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency, 4th in offensive rebounding percentage, and 30th overall in offensive effective field goal percentage. Kentucky should be able to bully Alabama on the offensive glass as Alabama is not a very good rebounding team. They are ranked 275th in the country in defensive rebounding percentage and are also ranked 281st in the country in defensive foul rate so not only do they not rebound the basketball, but they also foul a lot on defense as well. Alabama is a fast-paced team on offense but most of their success comes from 2-point range as they are only shooting 31.4 percent as a team from 3 which is good for 282nd nationally.

Kentucky is ranked 53rd in the country in 2-point percentage defense so I really think Alabama is going to have a tough time scoring in this game. This line has also gotten steamed towards Alabama today and one thing I like to do with steam is fade it with the first half spread so my pick for this game is going to be Kentucky 1H +1 -108 (LowVig).

Kentucky vs Alabama Line Movement

Kentucky vs Alabama Pick

• Kentucky 1H +1 -108 (Bet $108 to win $100)

Oral Roberts vs St Thomas Prediction

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Both teams here are out of the Summit League and both have high-powered offenses. St Thomas is a relatively new team to Division 1 as they were formerly a division 3 powerhouse that was literally kicked out of their conference for being too good and winning too much.

Yes, you read that right. This is essentially a D3 team who stepped right up to division 1 and has held their own quite nicely. One thing that St Thomas does really well is take care of the basketball. They are ranked third in the nation in lowest turnover percentage on offense, 61st overall in offensive effective field goal percentage, and 56th nationally in 3-point shooting as a team. They face an Oral Roberts team who lost some key pieces from their sweet 16 team last year but are again one of the top teams in their conference. But surprisingly, Oral Roberts has not been playing very well at home lately in conference play. They are 0-3 ATS in their last three home games against conference opponents and lost 2 of those games straight up as nearly 7-point favorites.

Oral Roberts also already beat St Thomas this year by double digits and think the Tommies will have revenge on their mind and should be able to keep this game relatively close if they are able to knock down outside shots. I think St Thomas will come out fast in the 1H tonight so my play is going to be on St Thomas 1H +7.5 -110 (FanDuel).

Oral Roberts vs St Thomas Line Movement

Oral Roberts vs St Thomas Pick

• St Thomas 1H +7.5 -110 (Bet $110 to win $100)