Ricky Dimon
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The new year means conference play is on the immediate horizon and college basketball is heating up even though the weather around most parts remains frigid. We have a couple of huge daily slates this week, and Tuesday is certainly one of them. Among the teams taking the floor tonight are Baylor, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, LSU, and Auburn. Amazingly enough, Covid-19 postponements have been kept to a minimum so far, so there is more than enough to work with as we try to formulate a winning mega parlay.
Here we go!
LSU -1 (-110)
Illinois -9.5 alternate spread (+146)
Kansas -9.5 alternate spread (+144)
Parlay odds: +1046
For this parlay we are going with three favorites against the spread – two on an alternate number. Let’s break down each of the three legs one by one.
LSU -1 over Kentucky (-110)
Kentucky comes into this game with an 11-2 record and on a 4-game winning streak since its loss to Notre Dame on December 11. LSU enters the 2022 calendar year with a 12-1 record. The Tigers lost their only game of the season in their last game against Auburn. But that was on the road and clearly their sample size of success is a lot larger than that one poor performance. Now LSU is back at home, where it should be able to one of the best defenses in the country. Count on the Tigers remaining undefeated in Baton Rouge.
Check out our Kentucky vs LSU preview
Illinois -9.5 alternate spread over Minnesota (+146)
This game was moved from Sunday to Tuesday due to Covid issues in the Illinois program. That’s an extremely short time, of course, so perhaps it is a minor disruption and Illinois will have most if not all players available. As long as Kofi Cockburn is playing, the Fighting Illini should win this one going away. Head coach Brad Underwood said we might see some players in masks, which at least suggest that most guys will be playing one way or another. Illinois’ offense stands a great chance to exploit Minnesota’s defense. Minnesota ranks just 206th in field-goal percentage defense at the rim, so Cockburn is likely to have a big game. Fellow Big Ten big man Hunter Dickinson scored 19 points on 9-of-13 shooting against Minnesota earlier in the 2021-22 campaign.
Check out our Illinois vs Minnesota preview
Kansas -9.5 alternate spread over Oklahoma State (+144)
Kansas did not look great against George Mason over the weekend. There is no need to delve too deeply into it, though, as it was a game against an unfamiliar opponent scheduled at the last minute. The Jayhawks are good enough to just go through the motions and win. But they will likely raise the energy for their firs Big 12 game of the season and win even bigger than they did against George Mason. Oklahoma State has lost 3 of its last 4 games and has not played in more than 2 weeks. The Cowboys may have used the time to work on a few things, but with not much to play for this season it might be tough for them to ramp up quickly and be competitive. Other than a 1-point loss to Dayton and a 9-point defeat of GMU, the Jayhawks have been awesome.
Check out all our college basketball previews and picks for Tuesday
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