Best College Basketball Bets Today: Our Top 3 Picks including Butler vs Saint John’s and Northern Iowa vs Wyoming

While Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are coming over the next two days, we can’t forget a “Festivus for the rest of us,” as the hit TV show “Seinfeld” taught us about nearly 25 years ago. To celebrate, we’ll see which teams can perform feats of strength to lead them to victory tonight and which teams will have plenty of grievances to air after coming up short. One team that will be airing grievances will be Arizona, who lost for the first time this year in a tight contest at Tennessee last night, leaving NCAAB men’s college basketball with four undefeated power-conference teams (Baylor, USC, Iowa State, and LSU).

Only one ranked team is in action tonight (No. 24 Wisconsin hosting George Mason), so we’ll dig deep for today’s best NCAAB bets before we shut things down for the Christmas holiday.

Northern Iowa Panthers vs. Wyoming Cowboys

The Bet: Wyoming -2.5

The Cowboys let us down as 1.5-point underdogs in a three-point loss to Stanford last night in the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii, but Wyoming is back in action this evening against Northern Iowa in the same tournament, and we like the Cowboys to rebound as narrow favorites. Graham Ike had a great game in defeat, scoring 25 points and pulling down 11 rebounds, which is ahead of his averages of 20.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. He will be the best player on the court in this contest.

Northern Iowa also lost on Wednesday, falling to Liberty 76-74 in Hawaii. The Panthers sit at 4-6 (3-7 against the spread) on the year, whereas Wyoming is now 9-2 (6-3-1 ATS). Northern Illinois is led by guard A.J. Green, who is averaging 18.1 points per game but was held to just 13 in the loss to the Flames.

The Cowboys are averaging 78 points per game, seven more than the Panthers, and allowing 63 per contest, which is five fewer than their opponent tonight. Wyoming is 8-1-1 ATS in their last 10 games as the betting favorite, while UNI has failed to cover in four of their last five games. After coming up just short against a Pac-12 opponent, we like Wyoming to win here comfortably.

Fresno State Bulldogs vs. Weber State Wildcats

The Bet: Weber State -1

Fresno State’s tour of Utah continues tonight with a game at Weber State after losing 55-50 to Pac-12 foe Utah on Tuesday night. The loss snapped a five-game cover streak as well for the Bulldogs. Weber State, meanwhile, has lost at home to BYU and Utah State in their last two contests, failing to cover in each of their last five games.

So we’re bucking the trends in this one, mainly due to the fact that Weber State has a decent home-court advantage and Fresno State has been lousy on the road this year. The Bulldogs are 0-3 straight up (1-2 ATS) away from home, as their nine wins have all come at home or on a neutral court. Weber State has covered just once at home but are 4-2 on their own floor, and with the spread at just one point, a win will almost certainly mean a cover for the Wildcats.

Weber State also has more scoring options, as Koby McEwen leads three players averaging double figures with 16.4 points per game. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have one player averaging more than 10 points per contest–Orlando Robinson with 18.2 PPG and 8.2 rebounds per game. If the Wildcats can contain Robinson, they will have a great chance to take this one, and in a toss up, we tend to side with the home team in college hoops.

Butler Bulldogs vs. St. John’s Red Storm

The Bet: Over 135.5

Butler opens Big East play tonight at St. John’s after going through a difficult non-conference schedule with a 7-4 mark. The Red Storm are technically 1-0 in the conference after getting a forfeit win over Seton Hall on Monday, as the Pirates couldn’t field a team due to COVID-19 issues within the program, and Big East rules call for a game to be forfeited in that situation. The Johnnies’ last game on the court was a disappointing two-point loss at Pitt.

The Bulldogs are coming off a 77-48 loss to Purdue over the weekend, and they also lost to Michigan State and Houston earlier in the season but won at Oklahoma two weeks ago. The  constant in the Bulldogs’ losses was a lack of scoring, as they didn’t break the 52-point mark in all four of their defeats. In wins, on the other hand, Butler has scored at least 66 in six of their seven victories.

The Red Storm only scored 57 against Pitt, but prior to that, St. John’s scored at least 74 in each of their 10 games prior to that matchup. The Johnnies are averaging 82.6 points per game while allowing 71.7. Butler’s numbers are far lower in each category, scoring 63 and giving up just 60.

The teams played twice last year, with one game going over the 135.5-point number set for this game and the other one going under. The Bulldogs have tended to go under the total this year, doing so in eight of their 10 games with a spread, while St. John’s has gone over in seven of their 10 home games.

Butler has a good defense, but even if they hold St. John’s to 10 points under their season average, the Johnnies will still score in the low 70s, which means if Butler can hit their scoring average of 63 (which is reasonable to think given that St. John’s is allowing 73 per contest), there should be a good chance of the over hitting in this one.