College Basketball DFS Picks and Strategy for Wednesday (1/15)

We are back with another big day off college basketball on this fine Wednesday. Tuesday was a DFS grind, but we came out of it mostly profitable. JJ Starling and RJ Luis underperformed but guys like Malik Dia and Aaron Scott came through which ended up being enough for a lot of our community. The night slate was incredible which ended with a legendary game from Keyshawn Hall of UCF as he dropped a near-60-burger. One of our community members “hamhock” took down the $30 Mania Q last night as well so we are rolling here at FTN.

The focus of this breakdown will be the eight-game main slate on DraftKings, but there will be coverage and projections for the night slate as well, which I will post later Wednesday evening.

Don’t forget to check out the latest episode of the CBB Supershow for even more in-depth coverage of the day’s games. Let’s get into it.

California vs. North Carolina

North Carolina -14.5, O/U 161.5

This is the highest-scoring total on the slate and an obvious game to target when it comes to DFS. North Carolina freshmen Ian Jackson and Drake Powell have had to grow up quickly, but they’ve become staples to the rotation already. The lack of a consistent post presence has really hurt star guard RJ Davis, and he is dealing with double-teams on a lot of their possessions. This has caused his efficiency to plummet, but defenses have to adjust now that Ian Jackson has established himself as a legitimate threat on offense. Jackson has scored at least 18 points in six straight games. His shot rate has risen to 27.2%, now second on the team behind RJ Davis.

Seth Trimble has returned after missing a few games, but Jackson has been so good that he will remain in the starting lineup. Jalen Washington had one of the best games of his career over the weekend in a close win over NC State as he delivered an 11 point/12 rebound double-double. The key there was the fact that coach Hubert Davis kept him on the floor for 26 minutes, and that’s something that has to continue as the Heels work their way through the rest of their conference schedule. Jae’Lyn Withers and Ven-Allen Lubin are secondary options at the position right now so Washington should continue playing a lot, but the key word there is “should,” because we never really know what’s going on in the head of Hubert Davis.

Those of you that have been in this community long-term know that I put a priority on DVP, and we tend to attack advantageous spots once we find them. With Armando Bacot out of college eligibility, the Heels have taken a huge step back in the front court which was expected but they’ve been even worse than we thought on defense. This has led to us rolling out forwards and centers against them most of the season. It was Ben Middlebrooks for the Pack, and he pulled down a whopping 14 rebounds. There are a handful of interior players on Cal that can be considered. First, Joshua Ola-Joseph is the best equipped to exploit this weakness, but he missed time and hasn’t been in the starting lineup since he returned. This complicates matters a bit as his minutes are a little sporadic, but he is only $4.1k which offers a ton of overall upside. He has a combined rebounding rate of 27.4% and a shot rate over 21%.

Starters Rytis Petraitis (9.7 ORebounding rate) and Mady Sissoko (33.2% combined rebounding rate) are also in consideration due to DVP. They sort of cannibalize themselves as coach Mark Madsen rotates through them consistently but MME’ers will definitely want to get exposure to them all. Guards Andrej Stojakovic (29.8% shot rate), Jeremiah Wilkinson (29.7% shot rate) and DeJuan Campbell (20.4% shot rate) are also solid looks in this matchup. The Heels are 11th in tempo so this is a huge pace up spot for the Bears. Unsurprisingly, this game is one of the more stackable matchups on the entire slate.

Single-Entry Targets

Joshua Ola-Joseph
Rytis Petraitis
Andrej Stojakovic
DeJuan Campbell
Drake Powell
Ian Jackson

MME Targets

RJ Davis
Jalen Washington
Jeremiah Wilkinson