Top College Basketball Games of the Week (Jan 2-8)

Top College Basketball Games of the Week (Jan 2-8)

Written by on January 2, 2017

NCAA Basketball Betting News
The college basketball betting season continues! With the new year already set, there will be a lot of interesting games to follow. You can check out some individual game previews on the college hardwood this week here at MyBookie, but here is a glance at one game over each of the next three days that I would recommend and even perhaps parlay together.

Top College Basketball Games of the Week (Jan 2-8)

Saint Joseph’s At Rhode Island, Tuesday

Crushing news for the Hawks on Friday as not Saint Joe’s did beat George Washington 69-63 but lost top scorer Shavar Newkirk to a season-ending torn ACL in his left knee. Newkirk, who was averaging 20.3 points through 12 games, is scheduled to undergo surgery in the next few weeks. With just seconds left in the first half of Friday’s victory, Newkirk stole the ball and seemed to have an easy bucket at the other end, but his knee gave out while going up for the layup. Saint Joseph’s had already lost sophomore forward Pierfrancesco Oliva for the season with a knee condition, and it just got junior forward James Demery back from a stress fracture in his foot. With Newkirk out, sophomore guard Lamarr Kimble will be tasked with taking the reins of the Hawks’ offense. “Just because one of our main players are down, we can’t fold and be sorry about that,” Kimble said after the win over George Washington. Kimble is averaging 14.8 points and 4.5 assists per game. Rhode Island was ranked for a while and comes off a 90-56 blowout of Saint Louis in its A-10 opener. The Rams’ Kuran Iverson led all scorers with a season-high 19 points. The senior connected on 7-of- 9 from the floor and scored 10 of his 19 in the second half. He also added eight rebounds, four assists (zero turnovers), and three blocked shots in 32 minutes. Go Rhode Island here.

South Carolina At Georgia, Wednesday

The Gamecocks’ best player, Sindarius Thornwell, will return from a suspension for this SEC matchup in Athens. The school announced on Monday morning that the senior guard has been reinstated after missing six games since his Dec. 4 suspension for violating athletic department policy. Thornwell is the Gamecocks’ top scorer at 18.7 points per game and top rebounder at 6.7. South Carolina (10-3) went 3-3 during Thornwell’s suspension. He was a preseason All-SEC selection. Georgia (9-4) opened SEC play with a 96-84 win at Auburn. Yante Maten scored 31 points and J.J. Frazier scored 27. With 7:27 left, Georgia began a 12-0 run to build an 86-76 lead and pull away. Maten, who scored 17 of his points in the second half, had six points over the 3:13 span. Frazier added two layups. Georgia was 3-0 vs. South Carolina last year, but the final two matchups went right down the wire. I like the Dawgs here even with Thornwell back.

Stanford At USC, Thursday

The Cardinal have opened Pac-12 play with back-to- back losses. They were embarrassed at home by No. 18 Arizona on Sunday, 91-52. The Cardinal ran into a hot-shooting Wildcats team that finished 62.5 percent from the field overall and 71.4 percent from three-point range for the game. Junior Reid Travis led Stanford with 11 points and eight rebounds, while fellow junior Dorian Pickens added 10 points for the Cardinal. Southern Cal fell from the ranks of the unbeatens on Friday, falling 84-61 at No. 21 Oregon. The Ducks started the second half on a 21-3 run, featuring 14 points by Ennis, to race to their 11th consecutive win and extend the nation’s second-longest home winning streak to 35 games. Chris Boucher had 11 points for the Ducks in his second game after missing two with an ankle injury. He was Oregon’s leading scorer before he was hurt, but Coach Dana Altman said he lacked practice time since returning to regain his starting spot. USC missed its first road sweep of the Oregon schools since 2008 and fell short of the 16-0 start by the 1971 Trojans that finished 24-2. Go Trojans here.