College Basketball Picks

MAAC Player of the Week Josh Pascarelli and the Marist Red Foxes roll into Sacred Heart with the regular-season title on the line. Marist needs this win to keep pace with co-leader Quinnipiac, and they've won four of five on the road. The Pioneers, meanwhile, are stumbling, dropping three of their last four overall and three of five at home. With Marist boasting a 9-3 straight-up record and 7- 5- 0 against the spread as visitors, I'm backing the Red Foxes to out-fox Sacred Heart for the outright win.

Purdue has the more efficient offense and home-court advantage but UCLA plays significantly better defensively (15th in adjusted defense) and has the superior bench. Purdue has struggled against teams that apply a lot of pressure. In games against Marquette and Texas A&M, the Boilermakers had a TO rate above 22% while they had an ugly 32.6% TO rate against PSU. Expect shaky backcourt play against a UCLA squad that is third in the country in opponent TO rate (22.9%). On the other end of the floor, the Boilermakers are 338th in opponent 2PT% (56%) with that number ticking up to 58.8% against conference foes. They are 350th at defending the rim per ShotQualityBets and allow a whopping 70.4 FG% at the rim. That's bad news with the Bruins doing most of their offensive work inside the arc and shooting 69.5% at the rim.

The Akron Zips are on the cusp of clinching the MAC regular-season crown, and sweeping rival Kent State Golden Flashes at home would be the cherry on top. The Zips should win this one SU against their cross-town foes, with Kent State likely struggling to contain Akron's relentless three-point onslaught. These H2H matchups have trended high-scoring—seven of their last 10 meetings have soared past the total. With Akron's shaky defense and a 9-2-1 Over record at home, I'm betting on both teams lighting up the scoreboard on Friday. 

Despite being shorthanded, the Northwestern Wildcats are playing some of their best ball of the season lately. Missing their second (Broks Barnhizer at 17.1 ppg) and third (Jalen Leach at 14.3 ppg) leading scorers, Chris Collins’ squad has rattled off two straight wins. The Iowa Hawkeyes, tied at 6-11 in the conference standings, also need a win on Friday. However, their play hasn’t inspired confidence lately as they’ve dropped six of their last eight games. The Hawkeyes have long struggled on the defensive end under Fran McCaffery and that issue has been especially pronounced lately. While taking a ton of mid-range shots generally isn’t a wise gameplan, the Wildcats have been proficient at knocking down those looks especially as they face a defense such as Iowa's. I’ll back the home favorite.