Best College Basketball Bet: Conference Tournament Semifinal Picks

Championship week continues as scheduled on Friday with several semi-final matches featuring some of the best teams in the country. It’s definitely more fun to choose the semifinals where the stakes are higher.

Today’s NCAA Basketball Best Bets include three conference semifinal contests.

Before moving on to ACC and Big 12 semifinal games against the Georgetown Hoyas and No. 6 Let’s start by talking about the Big Easy Tournament semifinals featuring the Connecticut Huskies.

Big East Tournament – ​​Semifinals: Georgetown vs. No. 6 UConn

Georgetown finished the regular season with a 14-17 record after falling behind 1-7. They should have been eliminated early from the Big East Tournament, but instead they upset Villanova to advance to the semifinals. Cinderella always wins. Can they do it again?

If the regular season is any indication, maybe that’s the case. The Hoyas and Huskies have played twice, and UConn won both, but by two points (64-62) in one and by four points (79-75) in the other. But on paper, these games shouldn’t have been even close.

My pick: UConn -13.5 at -106.

I’m a little nervous about this game because it’s so close to a regular season game. But after watching them lose to Xavier, it appears the dominant version of UConn is back. Huskies will cover this wide range.

ACC Tournament – ​​Semifinals: Clemson vs. No. 1 Duke

If you’ve ever wondered how the Clemson Tigers would beat Duke, the Florida State Seminoles were kind enough to provide them with a blueprint Thursday night. They make 52% of their shots, including 10 or more 3-pointers, force turnovers, and generate points from those turnovers.

In Clemson’s regular season matchup with Duke, they shot 35% from the floor, hit 6 of 24 3-pointers, and had 8 points off 9 turnovers (Duke went 10-of-13).

The Tigers are certainly competitive on defense (23rd in the country, allowing 66.2 points per game). But not much on the offensive side (223, 77.4 points per game). They are a decent 3-point shooting team (34%) and can generate turnovers (11.59 per game).

My Pick: Duke -11.5

Clemson’s defense will keep them from collapsing, but their offense will struggle against Duke’s defense (second in the nation, allowing 62.5 points per game).

Big 12 Tournament – ​​Semifinals: No. 14 Kansas vs. No. 5 Houston

It was the third loss of three straight for Houston late in the season, and Kansas essentially beat the Cougars at their own game. They played better defense. Houston shot an abysmal 32 percent in that game, while Kansas made one more shot (22-21) and 16 fewer shots (50-66).

The Jayhawks also went 7-17 from the 3-point line while holding Houston to 5-24.

The Cougars bounced back with three strong wins to close out the regular season and had a solid outing against BYU in the tournament opener. Kansas won a battle with TCU in the quarterfinals Thursday night.

My pick: Houston -5.5

Kansas deserved the win in their first meeting with Houston, but the Cougars’ defense is too good not to do better this time. Houston’s balanced offense will get the job done against the Jayhawks’ defense this time.