We’re only 17 days away from Selection Sunday which means we’re just 19 days away from the start of the First Four games, we’re officially in that sweet spot of the college basketball season where these games really matter.
Let’s take advantage of some of the great games left on the schedule as the regular season winds down. We’ve circled three games we like on Saturday’s slate.
Last week’s record: 3-0
Vanderbilt +10.5
There’s nothing quite like a matchup between the two bottom-feeders of the SEC this late in the regular season, but that’s what we’ve got here with the Commodores visiting the Rebels.
After making a bit of noise with three straight wins, Ole Miss now finds itself on a four-game losing streak. Vanderbilt, on the other hand, is just 1-14 in the conference as the ‘Dores have lost 15 of their last 16 games overall.
Coming from a guy that’s watched almost every Ole Miss game this season it’s tough to envision this team getting up for this game at all. Sure, the Rebels have a serious difference-maker in Breein Tyree who’s one of the elite scorers in the nation, but I think we’ve officially hit that point of the season where Ole Miss is simply done with this year.
Vandy has a group of younger guys so they should be a bit hungrier as they hit the road in Oxford. Ole Miss wins a close one, but Vandy covers easy.
Maryland -2.5
We took the Terps in this matchup a couple of weeks ago in East Lansing and they didn’t fail us so we’re rolling with them this week at home against the Spartans yet again.
Maryland hasn’t necessarily looked like itself as of late coming off of a loss at Ohio State and an ugly win at Minnesota earlier in the week, but this is a team that’s unbeaten on its homecourt this season, which is something you simply can’t ignore with such a small spread.
The Spartans have picked up back-to-back wins since losing to this Maryland team two weekends ago, but they’re running into a team looking to get back on track in their own building and that’s not the best of situations to walk into.
Anthony Cowan and Jalen Smith were the best two players on the court two weeks ago and I think they have big days yet again. Maryland covers in a somewhat close game.
BYU -8.5
BYU is fresh off of their surprising yet also somewhat dominant win over Gonzaga last week and enters this regular-season finale with every bit of confidence imaginable. This is also a BYU team that beat up on Pepperdine by 27 points earlier on this season.
Pepperdine enters this contest losers of two of their last three including a tough, disappointing loss against San Francisco most recently. The Waves are also one of the worst rebounding and defensive teams in all of college basketball which isn’t a great combo when BYU is one of the highest-scoring teams in the country averaging over 80 points per game.
BYU’s offensive firepower is going to be far too much for Pepperdine and the Cougars are going to finish off their regular season on a nine-game winning streak in dominant fashion.
