The first Tuesday of the basketball season is always one of the best days of the year. On this Tuesday, ESPN airs a 24 hour Marathon of college basketball games from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM eastern standard time. During this day there a lot of amazing matchups to start the college basketball season from Duke vs Kansas, Kentucky vs Michigan St, and Wisconsin vs Creighton. Here are my top picks for the college basketball marathon.
Monmouth (+5.5) @ South Carolina: The Hawks return every starter from a team that went 29-8 and achieved five victories against power 5 conference opponents. Monmouth was snubbed from receiving an NCAA bid after losing to Iona in the MAAC conference tournament final. The Hawks return one of the top guards in the country in MAAC player of the year Justin Robinson who averaged 19 points per game last season. South Carolina fell just short of making the NCAA tournament last year. Their season came to a disastrous end when an off-the-court incident involving nearly half of the team completely decimated the roster in the NIT. South Carolina then ended their season with a NIT first-round loss to Georgia Tech. The Gamecocks have many holes to fill with the graduation of key players Michael Carrera, Laimonas Chatkevicius and Mindaugas Kacinas. Frank Martin’s South Carolina team will have a whole new look of personnel. However, we still expect Martin’s team to play aggressive man to man defense, and we will implement a fast pace offense. Look for the experienced and battle-tested Hawks to take advantage of the Gamecocks inexperienced roster. Monmouth covering against South Carolina is the best bet of the day.
Prediction Monmouth 81-73
Belmont (+8) @ Vanderbilt: The Bruins will travel across town to play the Commodores for the first time since 2010. Tuesday game against the Bruins will be the Vanderbilt head coach Bryce Drew’s first home game leading the black and gold. The Belmont Bruins are predicted to win the Ohio Valley Conference once again. The Bruins return 4 starters from last years roster that ranked 12th in the nation in scoring last year. The Bruins will look for senior forward Evan Brad to carry the offensive load. Last year Brad was a force averaging nearly a double-double scoring 17.6 points and grabbing 9.2 rebounds per game last season. Vanderbilt goes into this season without star point guard Wade Baldwin who lead the Commodores in points and assists last season. Baldwin was drafted in the first round of the NBA draft last year. The void of Baldwin’s presence was evident during Vanderbilt’s 91-75 blowout loss in their home opener. Belmont can very well be one of those teams that will bust your bracket in March. The Bruins will have a chance to spoil Bryce Drew’s home debut. The Bruins plus 8 points is one of the safest plays of the day.
Prediction: Belmont 72-71
#9 Wisconsin (-2) @ #22 Creighton: The Centurylink Center in Omaha, NE is one of the best home court advantages nobody knows about. Not many teams go into Creighton and win, but this experienced Wisconsin team has all the intangibles to do it. Badger coach Greg Ward is officially the head man of the Wisconsin basketball program. Ward took over mid-season, and lead Wisconsin to a sweet sixteen run that included an upset victory over #2 seed Xavier. The Badgers return all 5 starters from last years team, and the top 9 leading scorers. The experience, talent, and depth of this Wisconsin team established their prospects of making Final 4 run come March. The Badgers are lead by Big Ten preseason player of the year Nigel Hayes. In addition, guards Brandon Koenig and Ethan Happ also made the preseason All-American teams. In their first game of the season, the Badgers held Central Arkansas to just 47 points. In comparison, Creighton had a bit of a wake-up call in their first appearance of the season against UMKC. The Blue Jays escaped with a narrow 89-82 last Friday against the UMKC Kangaroos. In that game, Creighton were outscored 38-24 in the second half while committing 17 turnovers throughout the game. There are definitely a contrast of styles that will be showcased during this intense competition. Wisconsin will try to control the game with military type discipline, tough defense, and precise half-court play. While the Blue Jays will try to use their athletes to out gun the Badgers and force them to keep up in transition. In this game the Badgers experienced and discipline core should prevail over Creighton.
Final score: 62-56 Wisconsin.
#1 Duke (-2.5) vs #7 Kansas (Madison Square Garden)
Kansas and Duke battle Tuesday in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden in an early season matchup of heavyweights. Kansas lost its season opener to the No. 11 team Indiana while in Hawaii. While Duke beat Marist and Grand Canyon convincingly, but the Blue Devils struggled to find rhythm in their game against the Antelopes early in the first half. The Blue Devils struggled to guard GCU point guard Shaq Carr who scored 18 points and dished 8 assists. This is an issue that points toward Duke inefficient in perimeter defense that significantly hurt them last year.
Duke will be play without their star freshmen players: Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden all are dealing with injuries, and coach Mike Krzyzewski said he doesn’t anticipate having any of them for this matchup with Kansas. Frank Jackson is the only player from Duke’s marquee recruiting class that has seen a lot of action thus far. Excluding their freshmen stars, Duke still has a very talented core. The Blue Devils return stars Grayson Allen, Luke Kennard, and Amile Jefferson. In addition, sophomore forward Chase Jeter has had impressive performances in the first two games. The Jayhawks are led by talented guards Frank Mason, Deandre Graham, and freshmen Josh Jackson. Look for Duke to present a small ball look that puts Matt Jones at the four. When Duke went small the offense began to flow. This should be a tight game throughout and could be final four preview in March.
Prediction: Duke 74-70.
Grand Canyon @ Penn St: I have yet to see a line on this game, but if you see one take the Lopes on the Moneyline. GCU gave Duke fits in the first half without their starting point DeWayne Russell, and a rare inefficient performance from WAC preseason player of the year Josh Braun. The Nittany Lions will be playing their third game in 5 days. Penn St is a very inexperienced team that has shown deficiencies in rebounding and shooting. Penn St has not looked impressive in a loss against Albany and their lone win against Duquesne. The Nittany Lions do not have the size to take advantage of GCU’s small lineup. Look for the Lopes to get their first ever victory against a Power 5 school.
