Three Bets for College Basketball Opening Night

College Basketball is BACK BAYBAY! In case you didn't know, that was supposed to be read in your best Dicky V. voice. I'm a basketball junkie, and while I love the NBA more than any other sport, college basketball is a close one for me. I'm hoping that we can make this a profitable season and start it off on a positive note with a few plays today.

Jacksonville vs. Duke

I'm a Duke supporter. I actually will probably boost my support for Duke this year too as we now have Jon Scheyer taking over the team. After spending years under Mike Krzyzewski's tutelage, he is ready to step into the spotlight and take the reigns of the team. There will likely be some time needed before the Blue Devils fully gel, but their starting lineup consists of three of the top four recruits for this year's class. Add in a solid transfer in Jacob Grandison, who I imagine will look to establish himself as a scoring wing in his last college season. Junior guard Jeremy Roach returns this year and while he isn't as scorer, and didn't average a ton of assists last season, he probably will be a key to getting this team on track quickly. They take on a Jacksonville team that they should easily beat but the question becomes will it be by 16 points? I think it will. They should come out motivated to win Scheyer's first game and I think he gives his starters (all of them are going to be the best five players on the court at any time) extra time so they can build their rapport together. I'm taking Duke -15.5.

Chicago State vs. Northwestern

In the effort of full disclosure, I cannot bet this game. I live in Illinois and none of the legal betting sites allow you to bet on Illinois college games if you live in the state. Still, this one is something I circled for my offshore accounts. Chicago State has been a brutal team for years and allowed teams to run up the score on them for quite some time now. I think that Northwestern should be able to come out in this one and run whatever offense they want and score some buckets. My guess is that they end up in the 80s for points. They probably are likely to allow 60 points as well. It is hard to judge how a team will come out of the gates, but I like that Northwestern is starting the season at home. Chicago State is unlikely to have developed a good enough defense. I'm going to play the over in this game. At 140, I think we should get to this with a couple of minutes to spare.

Lehigh vs. Syracuse

There has been a lot of change in the ACC, but I can't imagine that Jim Boeheim and Syracuse will change the use of their zone defense. Lehigh is not going to be the team that comes out and shoots them out of the game. Offensively, Syracuse lost multiple players so they will need to figure things out offensively. They don't have the biggest, or most athletically intimidating team. If Lehigh stays in front of the Syracuse players, they can at least disrupt the offensive flow. Syracuse should win this game with ease. I just don't know that Syracuse will get into the 80s which I think is needed for this game if we are getting over the total. Instead, I'm taking the under 143.5.

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