With a thrilling weekend of NCAA Tournament basketball put to rest, our attention turns to the other postseason events that take over during the week to fill the void. The battle to see what team is the 69th best in college basketball resumes with a pair of quarterfinal games in the NIT. We also have three games as part of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Unlike the NCAA Tournament, these events put the better seeded teams on their home floor, and thus all five games have the home team playing as a favorite. A trip to New York and Madison Square Garden is at stake when Indiana and TCU host NIT games.
BookMaker.eu will have college basketball odds and live betting options for every game on the Tuesday schedule.
College Basketball Schedule for Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Wichita State at Indiana ( -5.5, 138.5 ), 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Creighton at TCU ( -4, 151), 9 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Presbyterian at Marshall ( -4.5, 168 ), 7 p.m. ET
Charleston Southern at Hampton ( -1, 157 ), 7 p.m. ET
Florida International at Green Bay ( -3.5, 177.5 ), 8 p.m. ET
Tuesday Opening Lines Report
It’s not a complete shock that the home team is favored in all five contests on Tuesday. The biggest favorite on the board might be the most susceptible to being upset, though, and that has me leaning toward the Wichita State Shockers in their quarterfinal NIT matchup with the Indiana Hoosiers.
IU opened as a 5.5-point chalk but the Hoosiers haven’t looked like a dominant No. 1 seed in this tournament. They needed a second-half rally to take down St. Francis in the first round and slipped past Arkansas, 63-60, to reach the quarters. St. Francis and Arkansas weren’t the stiffest competition, but the Hoosiers didn’t blow people away this season either. That they were even mentioned as a possible at-large team to the Big Dance was laughable.
More concerning for Indiana is the health of leading scorer Romeo Langford, who has yet to play in the NIT since injuring his back in the Big Ten tournament. His absence wasn’t felt against the overmatched Red Flash, but IU’s offense struggled against the Hogs. Devonte Green was the BMOC in the last outing with 18 points and 11 boards to take down the Hogs.
Sixth-seed Wichita State has already knocked off No. 3 Furman and No. 2 Clemson and can become the first team in NIT history to take down the top-three seeds in bracket play. And it’s not like the Shockers are strangers to pulling off upsets in postseason tournaments. They’ve lost just once in their last nine games, that to AAC tournament champ Cincinnati in the semifinals, and they’ve been playing on the road for the last month, so don’t expect Assembly Hall to intimidate them.
The shortest odds on the board come in the CIT matchup between Big South rivals Charleston Southern and Hampton. The teams finished with identical 9-7 records during conference play, but Hampton won the only regular season meeting, 94-82, at home. The Buccaneers advanced with a 68-66 win over Florida Atlantic while the Pirates got through with an 81-72 victory over St. Francis (NY).
TCU has enjoyed plenty of success in the NIT posting an 8-0 record in its last two tournament visits. The Horned Frogs came away with the title two years ago and rolled to a pair of double-digit wins over Sam Houston State and Nebraska to reach the quarterfinals. The Frogs are laying 4-points to Creighton on the opening line.
The Big South is well represented in the CIT with Presbyterian advancing to a quarterfinal matchup with Marshall. The Blue Hose are getting 4-points on the opening betting line and will attempt to take advantage of a Thundering Herd squad that hasn’t been active recently. The Herd had a second round bye after beating IUPUI in the opener and has played just one game in two weeks. Marshall is laying 4.5-points on the opening college basketball betting line.
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