Best College Basketball Bets Today: Expert NCAAB Picks for Tuesday, January 13

Tuesdays are always a massive day in college basketball, and this week is no different with about half of the AP Top 25 in play. Two ranked matchups headline the day when the Virginia Cavaliers head to the KFC Yum! Center to take on the Louisville Cardinals and the UConn Huskies travel to New Jersey to play the Seton Hall Pirates. Other notable games involving ranked teams include Indiana vs Michigan State, Texas A&M vs Tennessee, and Iowa State vs Kansas, just to name a few. 

Ahead of Tuesday’s exciting hoops card, it’s time to get into my college basketball best bets of the day, as I look to improve on the 7-4 run we’re on since the beginning of the new year. Let’s dive in, and don’t forget our NCAAB predictions for more analysis on all of the biggest games every day.

CBB Best Bet: Minnesota Golden Gophers +2.5 over Wisconsin Badgers (-118)

Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook at the time of publishing. Playable to pk.

The Wisconsin Badgers may have stolen the “biggest win of the year” award from Iowa State on Saturday after going into Ann Arbor and handing Michigan its first loss of the season. The Badgers faced a 14-point, first-half deficit early, but they overcame it by scoring 1.26 points per possession through 56% from inside the arc and 45.5% beyond it – against the best defense in the country. Can they replicate that offensive performance in their second consecutive road game at Minnesota on Tuesday? I have a hard time seeing it, at least from the three-point line. That performance was well above Wisconsin’s normal output, as the Badgers usually connect on just about 33% of their perimeter attempts – which is right around the Division 1 average. 

Minnesota has the luxury of playing its third consecutive home game when it hosts Wisconsin, and the Golden Gophers have an extra day of rest and preparation ahead of their meeting with the Badgers as well. The Gophers don’t have the most efficient defense by any means, but it’s still a sound group, specifically against some of Wisconsin’s favorite actions like inside-outs, pick-and-pops and high-lows. They also limit transition opportunities at one of the best rates in the country and play fairly disciplined on the defensive end without an abundance of fouls. So I ask again, can we rely on Wisconsin to replicate its offensive output from Saturday? Considering the Badgers average 12 fewer points and carry a sub-50% effective field goal percentage away from home, I tend to think Saturday’s performance was an aberration and will bank on a regression to the mean in a tough situational spot.

CBB Best Bet: Creighton Bluejays -9 over Georgetown Hoyas (-110)

Odds available at Caesars Sportsbook at the time of publishing. Playable to -10. 

Saturday’s home loss to Seton Hall marked Georgetown’s 3rd consecutive defeat overall and its 4th straight conference loss. The tough times figure to continue on Tuesday, as this is quite a difficult spot on the surface for the Hoyas. The came out of the holiday break with a home game against St. John’s, had to travel to Chicago to play DePaul, then had to return home to play a tough-nosed Seton Hall team, and now they have to hit the road again to go as far west as they will in conference to play a Creighton team itching to get right after a home loss of its own to the aforementioned St. John’s. 

I don’t think the Hoyas have the offense to keep up with the Bluejays in the friendly confines of the CHI Health Center. This Creighton squad averages almost 85 points at home, along with a 57.5% effective field goal percentage, while Georgetown is around 67 points per game away from home with the 9th-worst effective field goal percentage nationally in those games. The Bluejays figure to dominate this game through their inside-out and pick-and-pop action, which are two weak areas of Georgetown’s defense, and their guards should have a field day from the field against a Hoya defense that has been weak in the mid-range and beyond the arc. Not to  mention Georgetown’s poor transition defense, which sits in just the 38th percentile according to Hoops-Explorer. That’s not very comforting against a Creighton transition offense that is in the 97th percentile. Look for a double-digit win for the Bluejays in Omaha.