Believe it or not, folks, this is the last week of the 2018-19 NCAA basketball regular season! Plenty of conference titles and top seeds are up for grabs – some mid-major conferences will begin their tournaments this week. Here’s a look at two intriguing matchups early in the week. Check back for the latest NCAAB odds and keep in mind that the rankings may change Monday.
Top NCAAB Betting Picks of the Week – March 4th Edition
#Sooners shoot 59.2% from the field, OU’s 4th best ever in a Big 12 game, en route to 92-80 win over West Virginia.https://t.co/bHaCt2DkGj | #YouBelongHere pic.twitter.com/isgJ5Cra0E
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) 2 de marzo de 2019
No. 15 Kansas at Oklahoma
- When: Tuesday, 9 PM ET (ESPN2)
KU looks for the season sweep of the Sooners as the Jayhawks prevailed 70-63 on Jan. 2 in the Big 12 opener for both. Dedric Lawson had 13 points and 15 rebounds, Devon Dotson added 16 points and fellow freshman Quentin Grimes had 14 for Kansas, which won its 18th straight at home in the series. KU was just 4-for-21 from deep. Brady Manek led the Sooners with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Kristian Doolittle added 10 points and Christian James had 11, though he was just 4 of 15 from the field and 1 of 7 from beyond the arc. OU made it interesting late after trailing by 15 at the half.
The Jayhawks kept their chances of a 15th straight Big 12 regular-season title alive with 72-67 win at a bad Oklahoma State team on Saturday. Trailing by three points with four minutes remaining in regulation, Kansas held Oklahoma State scoreless through the final buzzer. Redshirt-junior Dedric Lawson scored 20 points and added a season-high-tying 15 rebounds to collect his 18th double-double, while freshman guard Quentin Grimes connected on four 3-pointers en route to a 17-point performance. The win moved the Jayhawks to 22-7 on the year and to 11-5 in league play, keeping them within a game of the Big 12 lead.
The Jayhawks outrebounded their opponent for the 17th time this season, KU is 14-3 in those games and 348-42 in the Bill Self era. KU held OSU to 67 points, the 10th time this season KU’s opponent scored between 60-69 points. Kansas is 9-1 in those matchups and 180-29 in the Self era. OSU’s 67-points marked the fewest the Cowboys have scored against Kansas in Gallagher-Iba Arena since the OSU tallied 67 on February 7, 2015.
Oklahoma knocked off West Virginia 92-80 on Saturday. Sooners freshman Jamal Bieniemy scored a season-high 22 points. Aaron Calixte also had a season-high 22 points for Oklahoma. He made 8 of 11 shots and 3 of 5 3-pointers. Doolittle scored 15 points and Brady Manek added 14 for the Sooners (18-11, 6-10 Big 12 Conference), who have won three of four to strengthen their case for an NCAA Tournament bid. Oklahoma shot a season-high 59 percent from the field.
No. 10 Marquette at Seton Hall
- When: Wednesday, 6:30 PM ET (Fox Sports 1)
Marquette looks for the season sweep as it beat visiting Seton Hall 70-66 on Jan. 12. Eagles star Markus Howard scored 26 points, John had a double-double that included three crucial free throws down the stretch. John, a sophomore forward who usually plays around 17 minutes per game, was forced to play 31 minutes when Ed Morrow injured an ankle. Morrow played just 6 ½ minutes.
John responded with a career-high 11 rebounds, scored 10 points and blocked three shots. John hit the second of two free throws with seven seconds left to give the Golden Eagles a 68-65 lead. Seton Hall trailed 40-30 at the break but took a 63-62 lead on Myles Powell’s 3-pointer with 3:05 left. Powell had 21 points, and McKnight and Sandro Mamukelashvili each had 13 for the Pirates.
Marquette has already clinched a top-two finish in the league and now has its sights set on the program’s first-ever outright Big East title. Howard, who is already third on the school’s all-time scoring list, is currently leading the Big East in scoring (25.3 ppg., sixth in the nation). Howard has netted 30-or-more points on 15 occasions, ranking him fifth among current active players in NCAA Division I. Since 1963-64, no Marquette player owns as many 30-point outbursts as Howard.
Seton Hall is off a double-overtime loss at Georgetown, the Pirates’ third straight defeat. Myles Powell had 35 points in a loss. Powell’s 35 points are second-most in his career and most in a Big East game. He became just the 14th Pirate to ever score 600 points in a single season, and he became only the 31st Seton Hall student-athlete to score 1,500 career points. Seton Hall fell to 16-12 overall and 7-9 in the league, ending a streak of three consecutive seasons with a winning conference record.
The Pirates fell to 78-11 in its last 89 games when holding a lead of seven or more at any point in the contest. The Hall was up eight late in the first half. Seton Hall also fell to 13-4 this season when scoring 70 or more points in a game.
Expert NCAAB Betting Picks
Seton Hall and Oklahoma both with the upsets.
