As everyone know it’s Thanksgiving next week which means college basketball tournaments begin while students get off. There will be a lot of “TBA” games because of the tourney’s starting Monday so most of this article will cover Friday-Sunday this week, which are the heavier watched days anyways. As always please follow @PicksbyKY Twitter for daily bets and spread updates since I write this article on Thursday’s and a lot of things can happen between then and the write up. Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!
Kennesaw State Neutral Game VS SE Louisiana 11/18 3:00pm
Kennesaw state returns three out of their five top leading scorers (13.9ppg, 11.6ppg, and 9.1ppg) while also having an experienced led team. They have two seniors and three juniors combining for their top five minutes per game. They’ve only had one DIV I game thus far and that was a nice performance losing at Florida by ten when they were twenty-one-point underdogs.
The other thing I love about this team is having Amir Abdur–Rahim as their head coach. I remember his brother as a stud player at the Vancouver (now Memphis) Grizzlies. He took this team over starting 1-28, then 5-19, to last year 13-18. I think this team gets extremely close to .500 this year between their coaching and experience.
I am guessing Kennesaw State -10 and I want to get this number or better on a neutral floor.
Campbell @ Appalachian State 11/18 6:00pm
Appalachian State has started the year great thus far, coming off of a win against Louisville on their home floor. They’re being led by senior Tyree Bokin who’s doing everything averaging 16 points/game, 3 rebounds/game, 2.7 assists/game and shooting 43.5% from three. What I really like about this team is they’ve got four players averaging double digits, balance is so important in college basketball.
If you only look at the final score it looks like Campbell is coming off a nice performance against NC State only losing by 6, but it’s a bit of a fluke. If you take a closer look Campbell shot 55.6% from three on eighteen attempts while NC State shot a measly 25% on sixteen attempts. I think Campbell will be overmatched by this Appalachian State team.
All that being said my guess is Appalachian State -3 and would take this at -4 or better.
New Mexico State @ New Mexico 11/19 6:00pm
Although I have yet to place any bets on them, New Mexico has been on my watchlist since before the season because of a few key factors. The first being Richard Pitino and although he struggled last year in his first year at New Mexico, he’s proving early that patience is your friend, they’re now 3-0. The biggest factor for me is their dominant guard play with Jamal Mashburn Jr. and Jaelen House. House is leading the team with 20.7 points/game on 43.8% shooting from three while Mashburn comes in second with 18.7 points/game and 41.7% from deep. That is absurd shooting in itself not to mention Morris Udeze pouring in 16.7 points/game and crashing the paint for 5.3 rebounds/game.
On the flip side of things is New Mexico State and as a Mizzou fan, I cannot support this team. They’ve brought in not one but two ex-Missouri outcasts in Xavier Pinson and DaJuan Gordon. Although Pinson has a ton of talent, he’s a headcase that can’t shoot the long ball, currently sitting at 22.2% on nine attempts. DaJuan Gordon is good for defense and that’s really about it, which supported by the fact that he’s currently averaging twenty-three minutes and a putrid 3 points per game.
I’ve got New Mexico -4 and would take it all the way to -6.
UAB @ South Florida 11/21 5:00pm
South Florida is an absolute mess this year already losing to Southeast Missouri State and Stetson at home. In comes one of the most trustworthy teams over the past two years with Andy Kennedy and UAB.
Jordan “Jelly” Walker continues his dominant performance at guard with 26 points/game (currently third in the country), 3.7 assists/game, 2.7 steals/game not to mention 90.5% from the free throw line and 42.3% from beyond the arc. The guy is as good of a guard you’ll find in the entire country and backcourt play is one of the most important things I look at.
UAB is going to be around -13 and honestly it should be -20.
Goodluck to all of your bets this weekend and as always please follow @PicksbyKY on Twitter for daily bets.
