Four teams from Power Five conferences are left standing in the main bracket of the Legends Classic. Either the Texas A&M Aggies, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Penn State Nittany Lions or Pittsburgh Panthers will walk out of the Barclays Center on Tuesday with a coveted preseason tournament title that could go a long way towards punching tickets to the NCAA Tournament.
These games will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. The main field of the Legends Classic will play out on Monday, November 20 and Tuesday, November 21, 2017. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for every game in the Legends Classic.
Opening College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
The Legends Classic actually starts with eight teams like so many of these preseason conference tournaments, but only four get to the main field to play against each other at the Barclays Center. Gone are Montana, Oral Roberts, Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara, teams that will now play against each other in a "sub-tournament" at other regional sites.
Texas A&M and Oklahoma State were drew against each other in the top half of the Legends Classic bracket while Penn State and Pittsburgh will renew their local rivalry in the bottom half of the bracket.
The two winners will play against each other on Tuesday while the two losers will partake in the consolation matchup.
Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma State
Texas A&M played against West Virginia without superstar Robert Williams, yet it proved just how amazing of a team it may actually have in the process. The Aggies didn't just beat the Mountaineers; they destroyed them.
The Aggies were 7-point underdogs and looked the part when they were down 29-17 with seven minutes to play in the half. An extended 32-9 run over the course of about nine minutes proved to be the difference in the game for Texas A&M, though, and it ran out as a 23-point winner.
The Aggies' former Big XII mate, Oklahoma State, is off to a good start to the campaign. The Cowboys are 3-0. It wasn't exactly unexpected to see the Pokes beat Pepperdine, Charlotte and Oral Roberts to start the season considering the fact that they were double-digit favorites in all three games. What was unexpected is that the team would be 3-0 ATS yet 3-0 for under bettors as well.
If the Pokes truly are reformed defensively, they're going to be dangerous this season. Brandon Averett, Kendall Smith and Tavarius Shine are proving to be sharpshooters from all over the court, and these men could really take this team to the next level this season.
Penn State vs. Pittsburgh
Penn State is a 3-0 team that will surely sit at 4-0 before it heads to the Barclays Center. The Nittany Lions have been easy winners over Campbell, FDU and Montana, and they shouldn't have an issue on Friday night against Columbia at home either.
The man to watch is Tony Carr. Carr almost quietly averaged 13.2 points per game last season for PSU. He's shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc this season, an 18 percent improvement from last year, and as a result, he's up to 20.0 points per game in the early-going in 2017-18.
Pittsburgh is the team that really needs to get off the mat in a hurry. The Panthers need to rack up as many wins as they can early on if they want to play in the postseason this year after last year's disappointment, but that doesn't look like it's happening. The Panthers were decided underdogs at Navy to start the season and were only just barely favored over Montana and UC-Santa Barbara. A 1-2 record in those games won't do much to sway anyone on the Selection Committee.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
Pittsburgh is horribly overmatched in this field, but we think the two best teams in this tournament are both stacked at the very top.
A&M still won't have Williams in this game, and though it has proven already that it's going to be one of the best teams in the SEC, we don't think Oklahoma State is going to make the same mistakes with the basketball (16 turnovers) that West Virginia did in Ramstein. If the Pokes keep their defensive intensity to at least a modest level, they should win the Legends Classic, perhaps with ease.
College Basketball Odds: Bet on Oklahoma State throughout the Legends Classic
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