Thursday Night November 20th College Basketball Betting Preview and Picks

Nobody anywhere is predicting that Rider might upset No. 2 Houston on Thursday night. Nobody thinks it will be a close game. But we like the fact that Broncs coach Kevin Baggett is honest about why his team made this trip to play Texas and Houston: The Money.

The New Jersey university recently announced it was cutting employee pay by 14% and reducing faculty by 25% so Baggett is doing his part. “It doesn’t help our record by no means, but at the end of the day, whatever I can do to help the university, I’ll do,” Baggett told the Trentonian.

OK, coach, good luck against the Cougars after falling 99-65 at Texas on Tuesday. We will also check out the action in the Bahamas as No. 1 Purdue faces Memphis and No. 15 Texas Tech takes on Wake Forest.

RIDER BRONCS AT HOUSTON COUGARS

The Cougars have been relying on young players and freshman point guard Kingston Flemings is already at the top of the class. Flemings had a season-best 22 points in Sunday’s 73-72 win over Auburn and he’s averaging 17.3 points and 5.3 assists while sinking 69.2% (27 of 39) of his field-goal attempts.

Houston has familiar faces around like Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan as it prepares for another long March Madness run. Kelvin Sampson’s club won’t sweat much in this affair and will be aiming to better a 33-point win over Oakland in terms of its top victory margin of the young campaign.

Sometimes an overmatched team can hang around with stellar 3-point shooting. Well, you can erase that possibility as the Broncs are shooting just 23.2% from behind the arc. So yeah, a 40-point margin is very possible.

Houston minus 38.5-point spread -118 (FanDuel)

PURDUE BOILERMAKERS VS. MEMPHIS TIGERS

The four-team Baha Mar Championship in Nassau, Bahamas concludes with a title game on Friday. The Boilermakers are certainly expected to be in that game after regaining the No. 1 spot in the land and featuring a top-notch trio of reigning first-team All-American Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn.

Smith is the best passer in the nation and needs eight assists to become the third player in Big Ten history to record 800 career assists. He’s averaging 17.8 points and 8.5 assists this season. Loyer is averaging 17 points while Kaufman-Renn is averaging 18 points and 15 rebounds in two games since returning from hip and back injuries.

This doesn’t appear to be a ferocious Memphis club as the Tigers just dropped a 92-78 home decision against UNLV. Transfer Dug McDaniel is shooting just 27 percent in three games and has nearly as many turnovers (13) as assists (17).

Purdue minus 16.5-point spread, -108 (DraftKings)

TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS AT WAKE FOREST DEMON DEACONS

JT Toppin was a second-team All-American while leading the Red Raiders to the Elite Eight last season and he’s averaging 24.3 points and 11.7 rebounds in three appearances. He topped 30 points in each of his first two games before having just seven in last Friday’s 80-63 win over Milwaukee.

Christian Anderson also has an odd range with a season high of 34 and a low of 8 while averaging 19.5 points and nine assists. Wake Forest’s upset bid hinges on one of these two players having a subpar game for Texas Tech.

The Demon Deacons’ lone loss was 85-84 in overtime to then-No. 6 Michigan. Juke Harris averages 21.8 points and Wake Forest will need him to be knocking down shots to keep up with the high-octane Red Raiders.

Texas Tech to score over 83.5 points, -125 (DraftKings)