College Basketball Best Bets for Tuesday, November 9, 2021
College basketball is back, baby! Sorry, the Dicky V. just broke out in me from the excitement of a whopping 100+ college basketball games today. I’m excited to see what this season brings after last year’s season ended with the Gonzaga Bulldogs losing badly in the championship to the Baylor Bears. What will this year bring us? Who knows, but I’m excited for the start tonight.
Kansas at Michigan State
#3 Kansas is heading to New York to face Michigan State in a primetime matchup of two bigger named schools in college basketball. Kansas has a few returning players, and they also added Remy Martin who’s play was at one time compared to James Harden (for the record, he can score in bunches, but he isn’t close to Harden’s talent level). Some analysts are saying that Kansas is a better team than last year, and last year they went 28-3. Michigan State was no slouch either last season, winning 22 games on the campaign, but for a bigger program it wasn’t great. Now, they have to regroup with a bunch of guys that will need to figure out their roles. I like Kansas to win tonight and will play them at -3.5 at -118.
UT Martin vs. Tennessee
This is one of those warm-up games that Kansas and Michigan State don’t have the pleasure of enjoying. Tennessee is a 35-point favorite over UT Martin. That’s somewhat normal in a game like this, and it is obvious that a blowout is expected. 35 points is a ton of points though, and if I had to choose, I’ll take the 35 points. I don’t have to choose though. So instead, I’m taking the under on the game. If Tennessee covers, they will likely be in the 80-point range. If they don’t, I think the score is lower anyway because Tennessee had an off-shooting night. The only way I see this being over is if Tennessee scores 90+ points. I’ll play the under 146.5 at -106.
Kentucky vs. Duke
Tonight also kicks off the Mike Krzyzewski tour of his final season before retirement. Last season the Blue Devils were awful by their normally high standards, ending the season 13-11. This year they come into the season ranked 9th overall. They brought in three five-star recruits and had the fifth ranked incoming freshman class. Kentucky boasts the 10th best incoming class and has two five-star recruits coming to refresh their lineup as well. This should be a great game between to big names in college basketball. I think there might be nerves on both sides of this game, first college game for some, playing on national television, and in Madison Square Garden. I’m taking the under on this game too at 148.5.