🏀 College Basketball Predictions Today: DePaul to Capitalize on Villanova’s Injuries

The “madness” of March kicks into a higher gear today with first round conference tournament action out of the ASUN, Horizon League, OVC, and Summit League. 

My college basketball predictions today mix ATS plays from conference tournaments and regular-season games. I also make my top two player prop wagers on a pair of the most talented guards in the SEC and Big 12. It all looks to build off our last best bets piece that went 3-1 over the weekend.

🏀 College basketball predictions today: Best player props & ATS picks

See all of our experts' college basketball picks based on the latest college basketball odds; picks rated on a 1-to-5 star confidence scale based on betting value.

Total wagered: 4.0 units | Max profit: 3.64 units

💰 Best college basketball bet today

Youngstown State vs. Robert Morris prediction: Robert Morris -4.5 (-110) 

Robert Morris has the second-shortest odds (+240 at FanDuel, 29.41% implied probability) to win the Horizon League Conference Tournament. It is the league’s hottest team with the ninth-longest active winning streak (seven games), which includes two wins by 19 combined points over regular season champion Wright State.

The Colonials went 2-0 with two hard-fought wins by a combined nine points against Youngstown State. But this confident four-star wager is all about Andrew Toole as a battle-tested coach in March with three conference tournament titles on his resume. In addition, Robert Morris covered 68.4% of its conference games.

🔥 More college basketball picks & player props today

Villanova vs. DePaul prediction: DePaul +3.5 (-108) 

DePaul needs one more win either at home against Villanova or Butler in its final two games to secure its most successful season in 20 years. 

The Blue Demons enter amid their most successful Big East stretch of the season having won four of five. They face a Villanova team playing its first game without its best shooting big man and floor spacer, Matthew Hodge, who suffered a torn ACL against St. John’s. 

The Wildcats already rank 289th in bench minutes, and now they will operate mostly with a seven-man rotation. They also trailed DePaul by 10 in the second half at home in the first meeting, and their comeback was spurred by shooting 19 more free throws than the Blue Demons, which isn’t likely to repeat itself on the road.

Darius Acuff Over 23.5 points (-108) vs. Texas

Prior to Florida’s 111-77 demolition of Arkansas over the weekend, the Razorbacks had won eight straight games and were graded as the top-ranked team per Bart Torvik over that span. Given that Arkansas also held opponents to just 29% from 3-point range and owned a plus-18% 2-point percentage delta, suddenly Darius Acuff’s 17-point performance against the Gators on 6-of-19 shooting doesn’t look as bad.

Acuff had scored 20-plus points in nine straight games prior to facing Florida, and he ranks in the top-7 and the top-11, respectively, in percentage of his team’s shots taken and 3-point percentage in league play.

Acuff should exceed this projected total against a Texas defense that ranks 14th or worse in turnover percentage, free throw rate allowed, and 3-point percentage in SEC play. 

Cameron Carr Under 14.5 points (-115) at Houston

Cameron Carr is Baylor’s leading scorer at 19.2 points per game, and nearly matched that season average with a team-high 18 points in a home loss to Houston on Jan. 10. But Carr also received a friendly whistle with 16 free throw attempts in that game. That is not likely to be replicated against a Houston defense that ranks in the top-40 in average 2-point distance allowed.

Iowa State and Houston are two similarly structured defensive teams, and the Bears are 0-3 against them with an average of 61.3 points per game scored. 

Carr has scored 26 points in back-to-back games, but if Houston can keep him off the free-throw line, he has scored 13 or fewer points in three of the previous four games where he had two or fewer attempts from the charity stripe (which have come within the last five games).

💡 How I'm betting college basketball today

Follow all of our college basketball analysis and expert predictions this season.

Robert Morris had three days off before tonight’s conference tournament opener, and it is 10-3-1 ATS this season when playing on two or three days’ rest. That has me backing the Colonials as a one-unit play like all my other picks, even though they are my favorite play of the day.

From a player prop perspective, I am using the fact that Texas has not seen Darius Acuff to back his Over on points, but siding with the Under on Cameron Carr given the familiarity Houston has with him.

🚀 Best college basketball parlay picks today

In addition to the four wagers above, I am adding a play on Long Island’s moneyline odds as a fifth leg for this parlay.

The Sharks won the Northeast Conference regular season title by three games, and have a first round conference tournament matchup against a Chicago State team they beat by 19 and 17 points. Adding LIU to this parlay brings the odds from +1150 to a more enticing +1288.