NCAAM Best Bets for Tuesday, December 13, 2022

College basketball has been crazy this season. You probably think that is an overstatement or that I'm exaggerating a bit here. I really am not. Consider this, North Carolina was the number one ranked team in the preseason - and yes, those preseason rankings mean nothing - but they are no longer ranked and don't look like a title contender. I singled them out but there are a lot of teams that have more questions than answers. Today we don't look at those questions, we look for the right answer of winning bets on the games.

Memphis vs. Alabama

There isn't much question about it, Alabama is one of the best teams in the country. They are fresh off of a victory over former #1 overall Houston. This wasn't a cakewalk for Alabama by any means, but they were able to execute down the stretch led by forward Noah Clowney they outscored Houston as a road team by 10 points in the second half. Still, they seem to play toward their competition. San Diego State played them reasonably well. North Carolina took them to four overtimes before losing, and the game prior UConn beat Alabama by 15. Memphis is on a nice roll right now with convincing wins in each of their past five contests. This game is a road start for them so it will be interesting to see how they respond to this game after having been at home for three of their past four games. This game should see points and I'd expect the over, but in reality I think Alabama comes home and takes care of business against Memphis. I'm taking Alabama -7.5.

North Carolina A&T vs. Houston

The other team in the matchup just discussed is Houston. After dropping from the top team to the #5 team in the nation, they now get to take their frustration on a bad North Carolina A&T team. Though it is worth noting that A&T has played significantly better over their past three games. Houston was 9-0 prior to their game against Alabama, but they really haven't played anyone that good before them. The fact that they were the top team in the country is somewhat surprising. Now they have an easy matchup like they did in multiple early games this season. They also have to face Virginia on Saturday which means this could be a look-ahead game. I find it a little hard to believe that they will cover the 31-point spread, but they are definitely looking to get right in this one. I trust this game to go over the total though much more than I do the side. I'm playing over 128.5 for this game.

Some smaller plays that I like for tonight: I think there will be a lot of points in the Chicago State vs. Murray State game. If you followed college basketball Chicago State was an auto fade and an over team for quite a stretch. That's come back down to earth a bit, but tonight we should see a fast pace and teams that play lackadaisical defense. I've mentioned North Carolina a few times in this article, but despite me being down on them, they should coast against The Citadel tonight. I'm going to take North Carolina -26.5 tonight.

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