College Basketball Betting Picks For Monday Include Two MEAC Matchups
Strange day in college basketball betting on Sunday as we lost a game we should have won and pushed the other two picks. I don't have any fun stories so let's get right to the action...
College Basketball Betting Picks Recap, January 7
Canisius ML (-105) over Rider ❌
South Florida (+4) over UAB ↔️
Tulsa (+5) over East Carolina ↔️
The Canisius loss hurt pretty badly. They fell in overtime thanks to shooting a disgusting 36% from the free throw line. Frankie Mitchell went 2-12 from the stripe and doomed Canisius -- a team that outplayed Rider -- to a tough loss.
Then, we pushed our other two plays. Strange day in college hoops, to be sure.
2024 record: 8-6-2
College Basketball Betting Picks, January 8
It's a light slate in college hoops on Monday, so I just have a couple of plays.
Howard (-4.5) over South Carolina State
As is typical, we start with a road favorite not giving away enough points for the talent disparity. South Carolina State is among the worst teams in college basketball, and in fact rates in the bottom 30 according to Ken Pom.
Although Howard isn't a good team, they're at least outside the bottom 100 squads. Their net efficiency rates nearly nine points higher than SCST. Defensively, SCST ... well, they don't really play defense quite frankly. According to Team Rankings, they allow opponents to shoot an effective field goal percentage of 56%.
I cannot stress how bad that is. They don't make up for it on offense, either, posting an offensive effective field goal rate of 43%. That disparity between their own shooting and defense is among the worst in the country. Howard's disparity is less than one-percent (they shoot 51.3% effective and allow 52%).

I'm backing the Howard Bison and MEAC preseason Player of the year Shy Odom for one of my college basketball bets on Monday night. (Photo by Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
SCST also fouls quite a bit (21 fouls per game) and Howard shoots well enough from the line (72%). I like my chances with Howard on Monday night as I have the projected spread at Howard -8.
Norfolk State (+2) over North Carolina Central
It's early in the season, but Norfolk looks like the best team in the MEAC. Not that that's saying too much, as the conference is generally bad. But, they're going to produce one NCAA Tournament team and that's where Norfolk has its eyes set.
So, too, does NC Central. These teams were picked 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the league's preseason poll (defending champion Howard was #1). But, Norfolk has a massive advantage in the backcourt, with three of their guards earning preseason All-MEAC honors.
Norfolk is the highest-ranked team in the conference according to Ken Pom (217th) with a net efficiency of -3.7. NC Central is next, just inside the Top 250, but have a net efficiency 2.5 points worse (-6.3).
Plus, Norfolk posted the best non-conference win of any MEAC team this season, beating VCU on the road last month. NC Central's best win was over Longwood, a team they split with.
Simply put, I like Norfolk to win the conference and that starts with a big road win on Monday.
That's it for me, good luck everyone!