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Best Bets: College Basketball prop bets you can’t find in Vegas

Iowa v Gonzaga

SEATTLE, WA - MARCH 22: Head coach Fran McCaffery of the Iowa Hawkeyes reacts in the second half of the game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the third round of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at KeyArena on March 22, 2015 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

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Gambling may now be legal in places outside of Nevada in this country, but that doesn’t mean that it is easy to find action if you are looking to place some season-long prop bets on college basketball players.

Since Vegas won’t help us out, I have it covered.

Here are the officially unofficial props that you have to get money on before the season starts.


OVER/UNDER NUMBER OF BACKBOARDS ZION WILLIAMSON BREAKS: 1.5

Rims will be included in the bet as well, and as long as there is video evidence of the backboard being broken, that counts as well. This one is tough, but I would probably take the over because of the added equity of Zion’s shot-blocking. There is a very real chance that he puts a ball through the glass at some point this year.

OVER/UNDER THE PERCENTAGE OF VIRGINIA GAMES WHERE THE LOSS TO UMBC IS MENTIONED: 99.5

This will be the single-biggest talking point for every game that the Wahoos play this season, which means that the answer here is pretty obvious: Hammer the over.

WHICH DO WE SEE MORE OF THIS SEASON?


  • Fran McCaffery technical fouls (-105)
  • Games where Bob Huggins wears something other than a pullover windbreaker (-105)

I think the clear bet here is Fran McCaffery technical fouls. No one would be surprised to see him get tossed out of a couple of games this season, where as Huggy Bear doesn’t wear belts to games these days, let alone a shirt with a collar.

WHICH CONFERENCE WILL PUT THE MOST TEAMS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT?


  • ACC (-105)
  • SEC (+175)
  • Big 12 (+325)
  • Big Ten (+500)
  • Big East (+750)
  • Pac-12 (+856,948)

WHO WILL BE THE NATION’S LEADING SCORER?


  • Chris Clemons, Campbell (+205)
  • Mike Daum, South Dakota State (+245)
  • Justin Wright-Foreman, Hofstra (+275)
  • R.J. Cole, Howard (+275)
  • Carsen Edwards, Purdue (+550)
  • Field (+800)

Who did we miss?

ODDS ON STREAKS THAT GET SNAPPED OR CURSES THAT GET BROKEN THIS SEASON


  • A Big Ten team winning a national title for the first time since 2000 (+1800)
  • A team from the west coast winning a national title for the first time since 1997 (+650)
  • Virginia not choking, finally reaching a Final Four (+450)
  • No 16-seeds upsetting 1-seeds for the first time since 2018 (-10000)
  • A team other than Kansas winning the Big 12 regular season title (All bets are off)

OVER/UNDER NUMBER OF GAMES BILL SELF MISSES DUE TO THE FBI INVESTIGATION IN 2018-19: 0.5

This line is simple: Do you think that Kansas is going to hold Bill Self out of any games this year due to potential violations that he -- or members of his coaching staff -- committed, or will student-athletes like Silvio De Sousa (or Billy Preston before him) be the only ones to pay the price?

The bet is simple as well: Hammer the under, print money.

OVER/UNDER NUMBER OF PLAYERS THAT WILL BE ‘HELD OUT OF COMPETITION PENDING AN ELIGIBILITY REVIEW': 4.5

There has already been one -- Silvio De Sousa -- and there are a couple of other players whose connection to this case is pretty easy to see -- Bruno Fernando, Zion Williamson, etc. There is also one more trial that is slated to start during the season. Remember how many players were held out of competition last season as teams were forced to do their due diligence after Yahoo reported what was in Christian Dawkins’ expense reports?

OVER/UNDER NUMBER OF PROGRAMS THAT ARE OFFICIALLY INVESTIGATED BY THE NCAA FOLLOWING THE CONCLUSION OF THE FBI PROBE: 10.5

That numbers seems pretty high, but the line feels fair. Think about how many programs have already been connected to this mess. Louisville, Arizona, USC, Auburn, Oklahoma State, Miami, South Carolina, Kansas, Maryland, N.C. State, Alabama, Duke, LSU, Utah, Xavier, Florida State, Seton Hall, Creighton, DePaul, Oregon, Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Washington, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Vanderbilt, Wichita State, Virginia, Iowa State and Notre Dame were all, in one way or another, linked to this scandal in the year.

That’s 31 programs that were either directly mentioned during the first trial or were linked to the scandal in the media during the course of the last year.

OVER/UNDER NUMBER OF NCAA INVESTIGATIONS INVOLVING DUKE THAT ARE A RESULT OF THE FBI’S PROBE: 0.5

I think we all know the answer to this one.