Andrew Lange, Special to ESPN.com 9y

Week's best college hoops bets

Insider Men's College Basketball

With Super Bowl XLIX nearly upon us, the public eye is soon to shift to college basketball. Already, conference play has given handicappers a new beginning, with many adjusting their power ratings as the competition gets tougher and more is learned about every team.

Each Tuesday and Friday on ESPN Insider, I'll give you picks on the biggest games of the week and weekend.

Here's a look at West Virginia-Kansas State, Duke-Notre Dame and other big matchups this week.

Note: Lines and totals for Wednesday and Thursday games are projections.


Tuesday

No. 17 West Virginia Mountaineers (+1.5) at Kansas State Wildcats, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN2)

West Virginia (16-3, 4-2 Big 12) is forcing turnovers at a ridiculous rate (30.7 percent) but deficiencies scoring and defending in the half court have surfaced of late. Teams have started to key in on Juwan Staten (33 percent on field goals versus Big 12 teams), which puts the onus on creating turnovers, transition buckets and getting to the free throw line. To their credit, the Mountaineers do those things extremely well, but you can only bank on them so much, particularly on the road against comparable competition. Look what went down at Texas: four fast-break points, Staten was held to three points and the end result was a 27-point blowout loss.

^ Back to Top ^