Following another chaotic weekend of action on the hardwood, college basketball takes center stage on the calendar once again on Monday, March is here and Monday’s slate is headlined by an ESPN doubleheader — as Duke takes on NC State at 7:00 pm ET before a compelling matchup between the Iowa State Hawkeyes and Arizona Wildcats at the McKale Center at 9:00 pm ET. I have settled on my college basketball best bets for Monday’s action, and it happens to come in this marquee matchup in the Big 12.
Let’s break down our college basketball best bet for tonight’s games, and don’t forget our NCAAB predictions for all of the biggest college hoops matchups every day throughout the season as we inch ever closer to March Madness.
College basketball best bet: Iowa State Cyclones +7.5 vs Arizona Wildcats (-110)
Odds available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to Iowa State +7.
Situationally, these teams are entering this game following completely different results, as the Cyclones were routed at home by Texas Tech, while Arizona used a dominant second-half to cruise to exact a bit of revenge against Kansas over the weekend. Now, having just won a couple of emotional games over the last 10 days, and with the Big 12 regular season title essentially locked up with 2 games to play, the Wildcats might come out a bit flat in this one. With that in mind, despite a couple of poor performances in recent weeks, I’ll be looking toward TJ Otzelberger’s team to keep this game within the number on Big Monday.
Arizona is an elite team on both sides of the ball, but there is a recipe to knock off the Wildcats; one that centers around holding your own on the glass, forcing turnovers and making outside shots. It just so happens that Iowa State is one of the best defenses in the nation at forcing turnovers, and the Cyclones are also ranked 8th nationally in 3-point percentage (Bart Torvik), thanks in large part to the sharpshooting prowess of Milan Momcilovic. The Cyclones are also coming off an extremely poor performance at home, a game in which they clearly didn’t defend to their standard and shot poorly to boot. I would expect a strong gameplan from this coaching staff and a much more spirited effort from this proud program in a spot where they aren’t expected to hang with one of the elite teams in the nation.
Considering that Iowa State is coming off one of its worst performances of the season and should be due for a considerable bit of shooting regression in this spot, it’s reasonable to expect that the Cyclones should play to their high standard against an Arizona team that is primed for a bit of a letdown following a couple of emotional victories over the last 10 days. All things considered, I’ll take the points in a game that should be a hard-fought battle until the buzzer sounds.
Read our full Iowa State vs Arizona prediction for tonight’s matchup on ESPN.
Click here to add us to your Google preferred sources and never miss a story
