A relatively quiet Monday night in college basketball did no favors for our betting predictions, as road favorites Baylor and North Carolina both cruised to (relatively) easy wins against the spread against conference rivals.
Will we see the same kind of chalky dominance a day later? Six of the seven ranked teams in action on Tuesday are favored to win outright at BetMGM, though not all of them are created equally.
Here are our favorite bets to make on Tuesday:
CBB Tuesday odds, lines, picks (via BetMGM)
- Clemson +6.5 @ Virginia
- Indiana -5.5 vs. Iowa
Virginia vs. Clemson prediction and analysis
7 p.m. ET
What in the world has gotten into the Cavaliers? After ranking as high as No. 2 in the country earlier this season, Virginia simply hasn’t looked like an elite team for the last month, and there are no guarantees it’ll even win outright on Tuesday.
Entering February, Tony Bennett’s crew was riding a seven-game win streak to a 17-3 record overall. Since then, the Cavs have gone 4-3 outright – including two straight losses to struggling Boston College and UNC – and their last three wins have come by a combined 12 points. Even that is partially inflated by a seven-point win in overtime against Duke on Feb. 11.
Meanwhile, Clemson has won its last two games by 43 points after Saturday’s 25-point road win at NC State – which marked the third time in four games the Tigers have scored at least 90 points. This group takes care of the ball offensively and has the shooting touch to take advantage of Virginia’s oft-impenetrable defense, which should spell a close game at the very least.
Virginia vs. Clemson pick
- Clemson +6.5 (BetMGM)
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Indiana vs. Iowa prediction and analysis
7 p.m. ET
How could you not be impressed with what we’ve seen from Indiana recently? Saturday’s road win over Purdue marked this team’s second win in three weeks over the longtime No. 1 team in the country – and it came despite a quiet showing from star scorer Trayce Jackson-Davis (10 points), who has otherwise terrorized defenses all year long.
The Hoosiers aren’t perfect, but they’ve been pretty darn close to it at Assembly Hall, where they’ve won 14 of 15 games outright (10-5 ATS) and outscored opponents by 18.1 points per game. That includes six straight wins at home dating back to Jan. 14, a stretch during which Indiana has been a top-20 team overall per T-Rank’s power rating.
Iowa, on the other hand, has been a borderline top-50 squad over that same period and has been shaky on the road, losing five of six road games by 12.8 points on average. Especially coming off Saturday’s frenetic 112-106 overtime win, I don’t see the Hawkeyes having enough gas to keep pace with Tuesday’s red-hot hosts.
Indiana vs. Iowa pick
- Indiana -5.5 (BetMGM)