Colby Dant, Sports Gambling Podcast Network’s (SGPN) college basketball expert, is now 9-3 in his Philly region picks for a 75 % success rate these past two weeks. His colleague, Sean Green, hit on both Championship Games and the Super Bowl, and all their predictions and analysis are free at www.sportsgamblingpodcast.com. (Point spreads are estimated as of Thursday and dates and times are as published at Thursday’s deadline.)
LaSalle @ UMass (UMass -5.5) Saturday, 12 PM ET
The Explorers are 309th in the nation in field goal percentage and 249th in three-point shooting. LaSalle is also 229th in the nation in free-throw shooting so it’s safe to say the offense has been terrible this year. Meanwhile, UMass has the 68th best offense when it comes to offensive rating, and they are 7th in the country in field goal percentage. Lay the points with the Minutemen.
Dayton @ Saint Joseph’s (Day -5.5) Saturday, 1 PM ET
The Flyers may just be 4-4 on the road this season, but they’ve won 8 of their past 10 games and have been heading in the right direction lately. They are an extremely young team and sometimes that can burn you on the road. Saint Joes is 8-5 at home and they’ve lost 3 in a row by a total of 13 points. Give me Saint Joes to keep it close enough.
Drexel @ Elon (Drex -4) Saturday, 4 PM ET
The Dragons have won 4 of their last 6 and they are led by solid guard play from Camren Wynter, Melik Martin and Xavier Bell, who combine to average 37.5 points per game. Elon is 4-6 in their last 10 and chart at 334th in defensive rating. Lay the points with the Drexel Dragons.
Georgetown @ Villanova (Nova -13.5) Saturday, 5 PM ET
The Hoyas have lost 15 straight games and they are 0-8 on the road this season. Sure, the big number may be scary here, but Villanova is playing for a regular-season Big East Championship and the top seed in the Big East Tournament, so they have no room for error. Lay the points with the Wildcats.
Temple @ Cincinnati (Sunday) (Cin -6) Sunday, 2 PM ET
The Owls have certainly hit the injury bug with Khalif Battle being done for the season, but even worse is that they have Jake Forrester, Damian Dunn and Jeremiah Williams all potentially game-time decisions for an important road contest. With those uncertainties, you must lay the points and take a Cincinnati team that is 11-4 at home and playing well in Wes Miller’s first season at the helm.
Rutgers @ Purdue (Sunday) (Pur -12) Sunday, 5:30 PM ET
Rutgers is one of the best stories of the past month in college basketball as the Scarlet Knights have been unstoppable at home. But this game is at Purdue and, despite Rutgers beating Wisconsin in their last road game, they are still 3-7 on the road for the season with some bad losses. To make things even worse, the Scarlet Knights’ top player, Ron Harper Jr., is questionable and could miss the game. Purdue is 14-1 at home this season. If Harper plays, I’ll take the points, but I wouldn’t say this is a favorite play of mine.
(Colby Dant is SGPN’s [Sports Gambling Podcast Network] college basketball expert. He picks every Division 1 game against the spread at www.SportsGamblingPodcast.com and provides in-depth analysis on The College Basketball Experience podcast multiple times per week. All SGPN content is free here.)
Photo: SPGN