The College Basketball season is in full swing right now. And it will take center stage this week, as the NBA goes on hiatus with its All-Star Break. A lot of bettors like to play on the top-level teams. And there's certainly nothing wrong with that. But I often like to mine the bottom-tier teams for gold. And this week's featured NCAA system does just that.
Here, we're going to take a look at one of the worst teams in College Basketball this season. And that's DePaul. The Blue Demons are 3-20 straight-up, and 8-15 ATS. And they've been outscored by 15.60 ppg, while failing to cover the spread, on average, by 6.34 ppg. Out of the universe of 360 Division 1 schools, KenPom.com ranks DePaul #299.
Tonight, on Valentine's Day, the Blue Demons will host the #1 team in the country (and defending champions), Connecticut. DePaul comes into this game on an 11-game losing streak, and have lost their last 3 games, ATS. Those 3 losses were to Seton Hall (72-39), Xavier (93-68) and St. John's (85-57). After losing 3 games, SU/ATS by large margins of 33, 25 and 28 points, very few bettors will have the stomach to go to the window to plunk down money on the Blue Demons. But not me. Indeed, I like DePaul tonight +24.5 points, as NCAA Basketball teams off 3 SU/ATS losses by more than 20 points have covered the spread 59.2% since 1990 (93-64-2 ATS). One of this system's plays was last month on this same DePaul team. It had lost its 3 prior games SU/ATS by 38, 25 and 26 points, yet got inside the 16-point spread that night vs. Butler in a 74-60 loss. So, this system bodes well for DePaul tonight. As does the fact that it is 38-15-2 ATS in conference games as an underdog of more than 5 points, if it scored less than 60 its last time out. Take DePaul + the points.
Join today for our Valentine's Day Special and get 9 Days Free. I'm 268-210 this basketball season, and 1555-1262-34 (+ $168,380, based on $1,000 a play) the last 3+ years in Hoops.
Good luck, as always,
Al McMordie