We are barely two weeks into the 2019-20 college basketball season and already two top-ranked teams have lost in Michigan State and Kentucky. Could it happen again this week with new No. 1 Duke? Here’s a look at two intriguing early-week games. Check back for Mybookie NCAAB odds.
Top College Basketball Betting Picks of the Week – November 18th Edition
Vermont vs No. 9 Virginia
- When: Tuesday, 7 PM ET
- Live Stream: ACC Network Extra
These schools have met only once in men’s basketball, on Nov. 11, 2007, when UVA won 90-72 at home.
Don’t rule out an upset here of the defending national champions as Vermont is a very good program in the America East Conference. The Catamounts finished 27-7 last season after losing to Florida State in the NCAA tournament’s first round. Vermont’s Anthony Lamb was named the America East Player of the Week on Monday. Lamb helped the Catamounts to a 2-0 week with wins over former conference rival Boston University and St. John’s. Lamb averaged a double-double with 19.0 points and 14.5 rebounds per game. The 6-6 forward also dished out eight assists and swatted away three shots.
Lamb hit the game-winning shot in the final seconds of Saturday’s 70-68 victory at St. John’s and gave the Cats their first win over a Power 5 program since 2009. He finished the contest with a game-high 23 points, 13 boards, and five assists. Vermont stands at 4-0 on the year for the first time since 1977-78. UVM took down a current member of the Big East Conference for the first time since February of 1924.
Why Virginia should be your College Basketball Betting Pick?
Virginia comes off a 60-42 win over Columbia to improve to 3-0. UVa opened the game on a 1-0 run and never trailed. Three Cavaliers finished the game in double figures, led by Jay Huff and Mamadi Diakite with 13 points apiece. Huff also matched a career high with five blocks and pulled down six rebounds. Kihei Clark added 10 points and a game-high five assists.The Cavaliers held Columbia to 17 points in the first half, marking a season low for a Virginia foe. UVA held its third opponent to 30 percent or less field goal shooting (Columbia – 28.5%). The Cavaliers have limited their first three opponents to fewer than 50 points for the first time in the shot clock era and first since the 1948-49 season. Opponents are shooting 25 percent from the floor against the Wahoos, who have allowed only 110 points (36.7 per game) this season.
Georgia Tech vs Georgia
- When: Wednesday, 7 PM ET
- Live Stream: SEC Network
Want to see arguably the best freshman in the country and perhaps the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft? That would be Georgia’s Anthony Edwards, and he has lived up to the billing and much more in the early going. Georgia’s freshman class – ranked among the top-10 groups nationally by every recruiting service – features five of the nation’s top-100 prospects. UGA’s five top-100 prospects in the Class of 2019 matches the number of top-100 recruits the Bulldogs signed in the last 13 years combined.
The Bulldogs improved to 3-0 with Friday’s 100-66 rout of Delaware State. For the first time since 2006-07, the Bulldogs have scored over 90 points in three-consecutive games. UGA had 30 assists in the win, the most since they tallied 32 in November 2006 victory over S.C. State.
Junior Rayshaun Hammonds had a career-high 14 rebounds with 26 points for his third career 20-plus point performance. He also recorded his third career double-double. Two other Bulldogs exceeded double digits in scoring. Sophomore Amanze Ngumezi set a new career-high, with 16 points, and senior Tyree Crump tacked on 10 points. Ngumezi also set career-highs in minutes, 19, and blocks, two. Edwards was quiet with six points.
The Bulldogs are in the midst of a four-game, double-figure winning streak over the Yellow Jackets. That’s the first time Georgia has beaten Tech by double digits in four consecutive games since a streak covering the 1908-09 to 1013-14 seasons. Last season, Georgia’s five, four-year seniors finished their careers undefeated against Tech. That was a considerable milestone considering in the first 113 seasons of UGA Basketball, only four Bulldogs were perfect versus the Yellow Jackets.
Why Georgia Tech should be your College Basketball Betting Pick?
Georgia Tech has been off since a 64-41 win over Elon on Nov. 11. The Yellow Jackets (2-0) held the Phoenix to just 22 percent shooting from the field, the second lowest yield in Tech history, including a paltry 10 percent from three-point range. The record for lowest percentage by an opponent is 16.3 percent by Kentucky on Jan. 2, 1960. Most recently, Rice shot 22.9 percent against Tech in Anaheim, Calif., on Nov. 22, 2012 and scored just 36 points in the game.
The 41 points scored were the fewest surrendered by Georgia Tech since last Dec. 9 in a 73-40 win over Florida A&M, which is the fewest given up by a Josh Pastner-coached Georgia Tech team. Twenty-two of the 41 points were scored in the final 10:58 of the game.
Since the beginning of last season, Tech has held 20 opponents last season, and nine ACC opponents, under 40 percent from the floor. The Jackets have limited 17 opponents, nine in the ACC, to 30 percent or less from three-point range.
Tech was led offensively by a career-high-tying 22 points from sophomore Michael Devoe, including 3-for-4 shooting from downtown. Senior forward James Banks III also had a good game, finishing three rebounds shy of a double-double, recording 11 points and seven boards. Overall, the Jackets show 38 percent from the field, but hit 17 free throws on the night to capitalize off 22 personal fouls and extend the lead.
Expert College Basketball Betting Picks
Bet Georgia and Vermont.
