My first rule in handicapping college basketball games is that you are only as good as your last game. That basically means that even though you may have looked great and covered the spread easily in one game, doesn’t mean 19 year old kids will do the same in the next game. Sometimes victories are short lived in Division 1 hoops and teams are not motivated or prepared to put forward the same effort after a huge win. My second rule that a huge betting factor is how deep a team is. You must monitor injuries because losing a key player could set back a team who is undermanned and doesn’t have an excess of quality bench players. Third, upsets are nice, but you must be able to determine if it was a fluke or if a team is really capable of competing against teams better than them overall. We are heading into the last few games of conference play so I am just letting you know that these games can be “tricky” gambling-wise since teams might be more focused on being ready for their conference tournament and wanting everyone healthy, then caring about these games.

Harry’s Best Bet Hidden Gem Game of the Weekend

California Baptist @ Chicago St

Harry’s Hypothesis Spread is Cal Baptist -11

Chicago St is 0-12 in the WAC and has only 1 Division 1 victory. The Lancers of Cal Baptist won the first meeting by 23 and has scored 98 and 107 points in their last two games.

Predicted Final Score

89 California Baptist Lancers

71 Chicago St Cougars

Harry’s Probable NCAA Basketball Lines on Huge Games, Lines and Predicted Final Scores

Saturday February 22

Harry’s Hypothesis Spreads For the Weekend:

Kansas @ Baylor -5.5

-2 Marquette @ Providence

Duquesne @ Dayton -10

Villanova @ Xavier -2.5

Florida St @ NCST -1

Florida @ Kentucky -8.5

UNLV @ SDST -13.5

-6 Gonzaga @ BYU

Kansas @ Baylor

This Baylor team is making Vegas crazy considering know matter what the line is the Bears win and usually cover. On Tuesday nights win at Oklahoma the Bears set the Big 12 record with 23 straight conference wins. They also figured out how to win for the second straight game without star guard MaCio Teague. Baylor is excellent on defense and that proved to be true in their first matchup against the Jayhawks in Lawrence, Kansas winning by 12 and it will again on Saturday in Waco.

63 Kansas Jayhawks

72 Baylor Bears

Marquette @ Providence

Marquette was stunned on Tuesday at home against the Blue Jays of Creighton. Marquette is 9thin the nation in three point percentage and also have the leading scorer in the country in Markus Howard (27.3 ppg). Creighton only allowed Marquette to shoot 24% from long range and held Howard to just 14 points. That alone makes me love Marquette on Saturday in a “bounce-back” game on the road.

80 Marquette Eagles

69 Providence Friars

Duquesne @ Dayton

The Flyers just keep winning as they did Tuesday on the road against conference foe VCU. Dayton leads the nation in field goal percentage at 52.3%, but the Dukes are tough (18-6) and only lost to Dayton by 4 in their first matchup. I’ll put my money on Duquesne with double digits after the tough game Dayton played on Tuesday.

65 Duquesne Dukes

71 Dayton Flyers

Villanova @ Xavier

The Wildcats won in their first meeting, but Xavier has won 4 of its last 5 games (includes a win at Seton Hall) and at 6-7 in Big East play they need this win more the ‘Nova.

70 Villanova Wildcats

76 Xavier Musketeers

Florida St @ NCST

NCST is 7-7 in ACC play and are right on the “fence” of teams hoping for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. If this line is low like I feel it will be it could sucker bettors in on a much better Florida St team, but the Raleigh faithful get NCST to hang around and pull this much needed win off.

58 Florida St Seminoles

61 NCST Wolfpack

Florida @ Kentucky

Both teams are coming of wins on Tuesday night, but this Wildcats team is too deep as usual, having four players averaging 12 points or more.

62 Florida Gators

77 Kentucky Wildcats

UNLV @ SDST

The Aztecs are still the only undefeated team (26-0) and are 9th in the nation at shooting from three point range. However, in their last eight games the only team to lose by less than double digits was the Rebels in a 71-67 loss in Las Vegas, so I’ll have faith in UNLV to keep it close in a low scoring matchup.

55 UNLV

63 SDST

Gonzaga @ BYU

This BYU team is really good and could play the Zags tough, but in the end, Gonzaga will pull away. Gonzaga is 2nd in field goal percentage, 1st in points scored in the country and they beat BYU by 23 the first time.

86 Gonzaga Bulldogs

74 BYU Cougars

Sunday February 23

Maryland @ Ohio St -3

-1.5 Penn St @ Indiana

Wichita St @ Cincinnati -6

Maryland @ Ohio St

Maryland won the first time versus the Buckeyes by 12, but they won at Michigan St on the weekend last week and at 7-7 in Big 10 play, Ohio St needs it more.

66 Maryland

75 Ohio St

Penn St @ Indiana

Penn St is coming off of a surprising home loss to Illinois and will be focused to rebound against a Hoosiers team that continues to spiral downward.

68 Penn St Nittany Lions

61 Indiana Hoosiers

Wichita St @ Cincinnati

Is this payback for Wichita St ? Cincinnati is tied for the lead in the American Conference stunned the Shockers two weeks ago on a last second shot 80-79. The Bearcats have had a run of close games with their last five decided by six points or less. The Shockers return the favor on Sunday.

82 Wichita St Shockers

74 Cincinnati Bearcats