Best College Basketball Bets Today

Welcome to the start of the college basketball season. I think there’s the most betting volatility early on in the year, because the books know as much about these teams as we do. That means you’ll be able to find some great prices on underdogs, but you could also see those same underdogs lose by a ton more than you thought.

Monday’s slate features a lot of mismatches, so the key is finding out what coaches lean into them more than others and which ones are trying to find winning combinations. Let’s take a look at hopefully a few winners for us.

All odds are per DraftKings Sportsbook.

College Basketball Best Bets for Monday

Oakland at Ohio State

7 p.m. ET
Ohio State -19

The Golden Grizzlies are a team that you almost always want to look at the over for. They’ve got a pretty solid backcourt in the Horizon League but play absolutely no defense whatsoever. Last year in their power five games, Oakland lost 91-62 to Oklahoma State, 95-66 to Syracuse and 67-54 to Michigan State. Minnesota transfer Jamison Battle leads the Buckeyes, who only have two starters back. Chris Holtmann doesn’t necessarily run with his teams, but they did take advantage last year of leaky defenses scoring 80 or more eight times in the non-conference slate.

The Pick

Over 143.5

Missouri State at West Virginia

7 p.m. ET
West Virginia -6

The Mountaineers could be very good later on in the season, but I think they will struggle Monday with the team out of the Missouri Valley. WVU had a weird offseason that saw them bring in a great transfer class, but then they lost their coach. Kerr Kriisa is now out for nine games and that’s very important for this team. The Bears have 63% of their minutes returning and won’t be intimidated by the Morgantown atmosphere. Fade West Virginia early while you still can.

The Pick

Missouri State +6

Eastern Illinois at Illinois

8 p.m. ET
Illinois -27.5

The Illini have a very intriguing team in the Big 10 with three returning starters and some transfers, led by Quincy Guerrier, Marcus Domask and Justin Harmon from Utah Valley. Brad Underwood teams run and put up a lot of points against overmatched teams. They faced this EIU squad last year in the opener and won 87-57 in a 76-possession contest. They scored 85 or more six times last season in the non-conference. EIU has absolutely no size to counter the athleticism that will come at them. This one should be a blowout.

The Picks

Illinois/EIU Over 141.5
Illinois TT Over 84.5 (-115)

Portland State at Air Force

9:30 p.m. ET
Portland State +7

It’s been a rough lead up to the season for Air Force, who lost both of their secret scrimmages against Metropolitan State of Denver and the University of Denver. Head coach Joe Scott said that “not really anything” went right in those contests. His team lost Jake Heidbreder to Clemson and also found out that Lucas Moerman was leaving the program just a few days before the season began. Returning leading scorer Rytis Petraitis is out due to a lingering shoulder injury while several other players have dealt with injuries throughout the fall. The Vikings certainly aren’t great, but they return 66% of last year’s minutes and have a few interesting transfers coming in from Texas Tech and South Carolina. Last year Air Force lost 68-64 at Portland State. Heidbreder and Petraitis combined for 38 points in that one. Give me the underdog Monday night.