College Basketball Picks Today: Saturday January 10th Best Bets

Today’s three-pack of college basketball betting picks celebrates the surprise teams of the season.

Raise your hands if you projected Nebraska in the top 10, or Vanderbilt to start 15-0, or Virginia to be nationally ranked and relevant one year removed from Tony Bennett’s abrupt retirement. Then put your hands down, you liars.

Saturday is a perfect afternoon to get familiar with all three squads just two months out from the NCAA Tournament. That’s just as true for getting to know them from a betting perspective. Here we go:

No. 10 Nebraska at Indiana

I know I don’t have the stamina of a college kid anymore, but truly, how is this going to work? All those students and fans who spent Friday night celebrating the Hoosiers’ win in the CFP semifinal are going to be ready to go at Assembly Hall on Saturday at noon, and their voices won’t be shot?

Without getting too far ahead of myself, Nebraska basketball is like Indiana football, at least in this one key way: Both are historically bereft of success compared to any Big Ten counterpart -- Nebraska’s never won a tournament game, Indiana football has more losses than anyone out there -- and both are enjoying the seasons of their lives.

Anyway, they’re favoring Indiana in Vegas but this is no time to bet against the 15-0 Huskers, whose 3-point defense should be good enough to contain Lamar Wilkerson and the Hoosiers’ newfound strength in that area.

Nebraska +4.5, -110 (BetMGM)

LSU at No. 11 Vanderbilt

Every other SEC team has two losses but Vanderbilt, which just toppled Alabama 96-90 to stay perfect and owns a 21.6-point average margin of victory -- eighth in the country and better than the likes of Duke. Few teams turn defense into offense quite like the Commodores, who average about 10 steals per game.

Can LSU keep up with the ‘Dores? The Tigers’ underlying metrics are good, but they didn’t look sharp at either end of the court in a 78-68 home loss to South Carolina this week.

Hey, Vandy wasn’t supposed to beat LSU in football this year, but Diego Pavia had other ideas. The women’s basketball team beat Kim Mulkey’s Tigers last week. Men’s hoops is about to make it 3-for-3. Give me a runaway.

Vanderbilt -14.5, -118 (DraftKings)

Stanford at No. 23 Virginia

Virginia is 13-2, a perfect 9-0 at home and an enjoyable watch. Five guys average double-figure scoring, and sixth on the list is a 7-footer from Germany called Johann Grunloh (awesome name) who puts up 8.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game.

Coach Ryan Odom doesn’t play at a glacial Bennett-esque pace, but it’s important to know it’s still on the slower side.

This game pits them against Stanford, who’s hit the under five of the last six games and 10 of 16 times overall. The Cardinal could be tired wrapping up a two-game trip to Virginia -- and we won’t soon forget their 47-40 home loss to Notre Dame.

Under 143.5 total points, -110 (DraftKings)