Sam Avellone
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College basketball is back! The regular season finally kicks off on Monday, November 4 with a loaded slate of games that will span the entire course of the day. There are some intriguing games, too. Texas A&M opens its season with a road game at UCF, Missouri travels to Memphis for a battle of the Tigers, Ohio State plays the Texas Longhorns in Las Vegas and Gonzaga hosts Baylor in what is a top-10 matchup in Spokane. Don’t forget some of the mid-major matchups, either! There are plenty of good ones to choose from like Charleston vs Southern Illinois, Saint Louis vs Santa Clara, McNeese State vs South Dakota State, Ohio vs James Madison and Wichita State vs Western Kentucky.
To ring in the new season, I’ve pieced together my best college basketball parlay picks at massive +1110 odds. Let’s dive in and start the season off with a bang, while you can also see our experts’ college basketball picks for all of today’s big matchups.
Santa Clara ML (-125)
Northern Kentucky ML (+280)
Texas ML (-130)
NCAAB parlay odds: +1110
Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook at the time of publishing
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Santa Clara Broncos ML over Saint Louis Billikens (-125)
This is a matchup of 2 programs that are on opposite ends of the roster continuity spectrum. Saint Louis completely re-tooled their roster, including its head coach. Josh Schertz was hired away from Indiana State, and he brought 2 key transfers with him in Robbie Avila and Isaiah Swope – both of whom were catalysts for the highly efficient offense Schertz ran in Terre Haute. Schertz also brought in Kobe Johnson (West Virginia), Kalu Anya (Brown), AJ Casey (Miami) and a couple of freshmen to join returning contributors Gibson Jimerson, Kellen Thames and Larry Hughes II. While the upside is high for this squad, it’s going to take time for the new pieces to gel. The Billikens made less than 35% of their three-point attempts in their 2 exhibition games, and I am nervous about their ability to defend quality teams when they step up in class.
Santa Clara’s roster continuity is the polar opposite of Saint Louis’. The Broncos return 5 of their 6 top scorers from last year, including their All-WCC First Team guard Adama-Alpha Bal – who averaged more than 14 points per game. The Broncos added a junior college transfer in Elijah Mahi, who averaged 17.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game for an undefeated West Valley College team, and they also bring back a former All-WCC First Team member Carlos Stewart – who averaged more than 15 points per game for the Broncos in the 2022-2023 season before he left the program to play at LSU for a year. Not only does this team have elite scoring from the guard position, but it also has elite frontcourt size to protect the rim and crash the glass. Christoph Tilly and Johnny O’Neil both stand 6’10” or taller and should match up well with Avilia in any area of the floor. Given how much roster continuity coach Herb Sendek has on this Broncos team, I like them to beat the Billikens, who may take a bit of time to effectively run Schertz’s offense.
Find out our college basketball best bets for Opening Night, including a pick on Saint Louis vs Santa Clara!
Northern Kentucky Norse ML over Florida State Seminoles (+280)
Coach Leonard Hamilton and the Florida State Seminoles are in a difficult predicament this year. They have failed to reach the NCAA Tournament in 3 straight seasons, and almost all of their most talented pieces left the program. While they return former VCU guard Jamir Watkins, who averaged 15.6 points, 6 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game in Tallahassee last year, there is not much else on this roster from a Power Conference experience level. The Seminoles return only 3 players outside of Watkins, all of whom averaged fewer than 15 minutes per game, and will have a rotation that consists of mostly freshmen and transfers – including 4-star freshman guard Daquan Davis, Bostyn Holt (South Dakota) and Jason Simpson (St. John’s). In their first game together, they will host a Northern Kentucky team that should make some noise in the Horizon League after losing in the conference tournament semi-finals last year.
Led by coach Darrin Horn, the Norse play a unique style of zone defense and are highly experienced at the collegiate level. While the program’s leading scorer Marques Warrick left in the portal, there are plenty of key pieces that remain. Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year Trey Robinson returns for his final season after averaging 11.7 points and 7 rebounds per game last year, as does Sam Vinson – a previous Horizon League Freshman of the year and All-League third team member who averaged more than 13 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists per game before sustaining a season-ending injury. Keeyan Itejere, a former Marquette transfer, is back in the mix, providing rim protection and elite offensive efficiency on the low block. The Norse will also have returning starter LJ Wells, while sophomores Randall Pettus and Jeremiah Israel hope to improve on their freshman seasons in Year 2. Along with these returning contributors, Coach Horn brought in a couple of scoring guards from the Division 2 ranks, as well as a couple of international forwards.
Northern Kentucky’s unique style of defense forces its opponents into long jump shots, which is not an area I believe Florida State will have success. The Seminoles were one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country last year, and I don’t expect that to change given the current state of their roster. Look for the Norse to go into Tallahassee and pull off the upset.
Texas Longhorns ML over Ohio State Buckeyes (-130)
This SEC vs Big Ten showdown will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and should be quite a treat. Both the Longhorns and the Buckeyes hit the transfer portal hard in the offseason, but Texas’ roster overhaul intrigues me most in this matchup. Jordan Pope (Oregon State), Tramon Mark (Arkansas), Arthur Kaluma (Kansas State), Jayson Kent (Indiana State) and Julian Larry (Indiana State) all averaged at least 11 points per game at their previous schools and now join forces in Austin, along with returning contributors Kaden Shedrick and Chendall Weaver. Coach Rodney Terry also landed a projected first-round NBA pick in Tre Johnson, a 5-star freshman shooting guard who averaged close to 24 points per game last year for a 32-5 team in the Dallas area.
Ohio State also had a successful offseason in the portal, landing transfers Meechie Johnson (South Carolina), Ques Glover (Kansas State) Micah Parrish (San Diego State), Sean Stewart (Duke) and Aaron Bradshaw (Kentucky). They will join Preseason All-Big Ten Team member Bruce Thorton and freshman John Mobley Jr., but I’m not sold on this team’s overall offensive upside against what should be a strong Texas defense. In this particular matchup, I believe Texas to be the deeper team with higher overall ceiling on both sides of the court, and like the Longhorns to escape with a win because of it.
Read our full Ohio State vs Texas prediction
