Unlike other sports like Soccer or Major League Baseball where home advantage is more of an ubiquitous thing in the mind rather than a tangible edge in sports betting, home court advantage in college basketball betting is a big deal as any other out there. To understand what we are saying; take a look at the following NCAAB online sporstbook odds trends, for instance.
- The SMU Mustangs (19-2, 1st in America) are one of the few two-loss teams in the country. Both of their losses came on the road (at Temple, at Houston).
- All of the #7 Kansas Jayhawks’ three conference losses have come on the road (at Western Virginia, at Oklahoma State, at Iowa State)
- The #6 Xavier Musketeers (20-2) had their first loss of the season handed to them on the road by Villanova, and it was far from a pretty loss.
- The #2 North Carolina Tar Heels (19-3) have suffered three losses, and all of them have come on the road, including Monday’s 6-point loss to Louisville
- The #1 Oklahoma Sooners (19-2) have suffered two losses, both coming away from home, including that memorable 109-106 triple-overtime thriller at Kansas. FYI, OU’s Buddy Hield scored a whopping 46 points in that game, but his team still lost.
I could go on and on, but I’m guessing you already get my drift. Now, against this background, here is a look at NCAAB’s best home teams to bet on in the college basketball lines.
Which College Hoops Teams are the Best Bets @ Home
No. 7 Kansas Jayhawks
The type of dominance the Jayhawks own at the Allen Fieldhouse under Coach Bill Self is utterly ridiculous. With their 75-59 win over rivals Kansas State on Tuesday night, Self bumped his mind-blowing home win record at Allen Fieldhouse to a staggering 202-9, and that’s no typo!
Owning a 95.7 home win percentage, which is actually the greatest homecourt advantage of any major American sport, is ridiculously insane and remarkably UNREAL, as was befittingly admitted by Self when he reached the 200-win mark last week. Not to mention, that win over Kansas State extended Kansas’ home winning streak to 36 straight wins, the fourth-longest undefeated streak in basketball program history. It is no wonder Kansas has won 11 consecutive Big 12 regular season championships and is hotly tipped to do the same again this year, despite their road woes.
No. 3 Maryland Terrapins
The Terps have a best-kept secret why they only have 3 losses in the 23 games they’ve played so far, and it has got nothing to do with the kind of havoc Diamond Stone and Melo Trimble are wreaking in the NCAAB odds; it is their solid home court advantage. The Terps are flawlessly 12-0 this season at the Xfinity Center in College Park. This includes last week’s 74-68 victory over the Hawkeyes when the then #8-ranked Maryland hosted #3 Iowa in a Big Ten game with enormous seeding implications. Mind you, that victory condemned Iowa to its first Big Ten loss this season, tumbling the conference leaders into a tie with Indiana at 7-1, one game in the loss column ahead of Maryland.
More notably about the Terps and their solid home record, they are 14-0 at home in conference play since joining the Big Ten last year. That, of course, included wins over the likes of Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin in last year’s campaign. If you want to find the last time Maryland lost at home, you would have to go back to December 3, 2014, when the Terps suffered a defeat against former ACC rival Virginia in last year’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge…
For those of you that don’t own a calendar, that’s a freaking 422 days (dating to the recent home win over Iowa) without any home loss. As if that isn’t enough, Maryland went 18-1 overall at home last season and 12-4 the year before under coach Turgeon. In fact, the last conference loss for Maryland came during that 12-4 run in the 2013-14 season, where Maryland (as a member of the ACC at the time) lost to Syracuse on February 24, 2014. That’s just one home loss in conference play in the last…703 days (dating to the win over Iowa).
Not to forget, coach Turgeon is 107-53 overall for Maryland (ahead of Wednesday’s NCAAB games) since he took over from Gary Williams in 2011, boosted by a stellar 73-12 record at home. That’s nothing to sniff. So, until further notice, if you see Maryland’s name and they are playing at home (like the clash against #18 Purdue on February 6th, vs. BSU on Feb. 9, and vs. Wisconsin on Feb. 13), I bet you know what you should do in the SU lines.
No. 23 Arizona
Last Thursday Night, the basketball world was sent into ripples, as the No. 23 Oregon did what no team had in Tuscon in three years, which is—beat Arizona at home. The 83-75 win by the Ducks in Arizona marked brought an end to Arizona’s 49-game win streak at home, which was in fact the longest home winning streak. Over the years, Arizona had turned the McKale Memorial Center in to a virtual fortress, beating all kinds of opponents, including winning the last 23 games against Pac-12 foes.
The last time the Wildcats suffered a loss at home (before the loss to Oregon) was back on February 10, 2013, where they went down to a 77-69 win by Cal.
As a silver lining, though, that 49 win streak included just two wins against Top 25 teams; a 69-51 victory over then No. 8 Utah and a 66-63 OT win over No. 9 Gonzaga, both of those coming during the 2014-15 season. Even so, it would be hard not to give the Wildcats their due credit. And in case you didn’t know, the Wildcats bounced back from the Oregon loss with an emphatic 80-63 win over Oregon State, marking what many experts expect to be the dawn of a new home streak. You wanna get paid? Jump on the Arizona home bandwagon and ride all the way to guaranteed riches.
BYU Cougars
The Marriott Center has been a fortress for the Cougars, who have gone an incredible 54-6 SU in their last 60 games there, including an undefeated 11-0 SU mark this season. All of those wins have come by 7 or more points for a solid play in the point spread, where they own a 7-1 ATS mark as home chalk
No. 10 Michigan State Spartans
The Spartans (19-4 SU, 13-9 ATS) have been the model of consistency under coach Tom Izzo. Last year’s trip to the Final Four was their seventh since Izzo took over the coaching reins in 1995. More notably about the Spartans is that they’ve been taking care of business at home this year in sterling fashion on both the SU and ATS lines. For instance, since 2010, the Spartans are 0-0 ATS when favored by at least 25 points, including the 96-62 rout of the Scarlett Knights on Sunday Night as 27-point favorites. In non-conference play this year, they also showed class, crushing the Binghamton Bearcats 76-33 as 31-point home faves and pummeling the Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks 78-35 as a 34.5-point home chalk, underlining their dominance at home.
Below is a list of other notable teams with strong home records this season:
Team Home Record
St Marys 15-0-0
Louisville 14-1-0
Baylor 14-2-0
USC 13-0-0
Texas A&M 13-0-0
Indiana 13-0-0
California 13-0-0
Oregon 13-0-0
Purdue 13-1-0
N Illinois 13-1-0
Pittsburgh 13-2-0
Hawaii 13-2-0
UAB 12-0-0
Iowa 12-0-0
Kentucky 12-0-0
Maryland 12-0-0
S Carolina 12-0-0
N Carolina ` 12-0-0
Oklahoma 11-0-0
Virginia 11-0-0
Wichita State 11-0-0
For solid All-time home records (as of 9/16/2015), you can check out this comprehensive list, courtesy of RPI Ratings.com.
