College Hoops Midseason Check-In

The middle of January also serves as the midpoint of the college basketball season, with most teams around the country now just a little more than halfway through their regular season schedules. Sounds to me like a golden opportunity to check in on how things have been shaking out so far 📝

• The defending champs, Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies, sit atop the last edition of the AP Top 25. At 15-2 with three top-15 victories on their resume already, they look plenty capable of a repeat…just ask #18 Creighton, who learned the hard way last night 😤

But in the transfer portal era of college hoops where parity reigns supreme, the Huskies will have their work cut out for them if they want to stay at the top for long. Ranked teams are taking serious heat on a near-nightly basis these days…

A court-storming victory last week by the unranked Nebraska Cornhuskers knocked the Purdue Boilermakers out of their top spot following a four-week stay. In the upset, the ‘Huskers managed to do the impossible — slow down the reigning national POTY Zach Edey 😳

• The 7’4 senior center hasn’t met much resistance in his encore campaign, ranking top-five in the country in both scoring (22.9 PPG, 3rd) and rebounding (11.1 RPG, 5th)

• After a quiet night by his standards in the loss at Nebraska, Edey has responded with back-to-back dominant performances, logging 63 points and 34 rebounds in their two most recent victories 🤯

The two-game surge has Edey’s Wooden/Naismith case looking increasingly convincing; he’s now a -450 favorite to become just the third player ever to win back-to-back POTY awards 🏅

• With Edey leading the way, the big man renaissance we previewed at the start of the year has come to fruition, and preseason contenders Hunter Dickinson (+1200) and Kyle Filipowski (+2500) remain the Purdue center’s chief competition

If there’s a dark-horse to keep an eye on though, it’s Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht. The Northern Colorado transfer won’t be at +9500 for long — over his last three games, he’s averaging an absurd 34.3 PPG on 57% shooting from the field 🔥

Edey, Knecht, Dickinson and Filipowski are all locks to bring home their fair share of individual honors this season, but I’m sure in their eyes those accolades pale in comparison to a national title. Those guys all have a serious shot at cutting down the nets this year…check out how the championship odds are looking 👇

2024 National Championship Betting Odds _{(subject to change)}

• Purdue: +800

• Arizona: +1000

• UConn, Houston: +1100

• North Carolina, Auburn: +1600

• Kentucky: +1800

• Duke, Tennessee, Kansas: +2000

The expectations just continue to grow for this Purdue team, and the spotlight is even brighter given how last season ended; with the second-ever 16-over-1 upset in NCAA tournament history. But the first team to experience that infamy was the 2018 Virginia Cavaliers, and I think we all know the next chapter in that story…just saying 🤷🏻‍♂️

Trivia Question: Who was the 16-seed that beat UVA in the 2018 NCAA tournament?

For My Parlay Gurus

Tbh I may have to sprinkle some future action on Dalton Knecht and the Volunteers at +2000 if he keeps shooting the rock like that, but if you need a play for tonight, I got you covered there as well. It’s not the strongest slate of games by any means, but I’m going with a pair of road teams in this evening’s parlay — check it out 👇

• Illinois ML @ Michigan: -138

• Oregon +6.5 @ Colorado: -110

$100 on this bet would win you $230 — if we hit, make sure you email [email protected] for a chance to win an Overtime hoodie*. Many will enter, only some will win 😉

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Trivia Answer: The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Retrievers were 20.5-point underdogs when they beat UVA in the first round. They then lost to ninth-seeded Kansas State in the next round

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