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While college football takes center stage on Saturday, there's still plenty of value in the college basketball landscape.
Our staff is diving into three particular spots for Saturday's slate.
Read below for college basketball best bets, including three NCAAB picks for Saturday, November 14.
Be sure to download the Action Network app for more expert picks and analysis!
3 College Basketball Best Bets
| Game | Time (ET) | Pick |
|---|---|---|
  | 3:30 p.m. | |
  | 7 p.m. | |
  | 10 p.m. | |
Specific betting recommendations come from the sportsbook offering preferred odds as of writing. Always shop for the best price using our NCAAB Odds page, which automatically surfaces the best lines for every game. | ||
LSU vs. Gonzaga
Technically, this is a neutral-site game, but Gonzaga is just a six-minute drive from Spokane Arena. This is a home game, especially when the opposing team is coming from the other side of the country.
With this being LSU's first true road test against competent competition, I fully expect the Tigers to struggle. The Bulldogs are still waking up in their own beds, aren't changing their routine at all and will have their die-hard fans backing them just a few miles off campus.
Gonzaga should also be able to exploit a few issues LSU has shown against much weaker competition, namely its tendency to foul at a high rate and struggles shooting from beyond the arc.
Those are two areas where Mark Few's boys excel, getting to the free-throw line and defending the perimeter.
I'm not a trends guy, but I've mentioned Few's ability to get his squad ready for early-season marquee games. Excluding this season, Few is 22-16 ATS in November since the 2020-21 season, including an astounding 12-4 mark over the last two years.
Pick: Gonzaga -6.5
Portland State vs. San Francisco
By Evan Abrams
After a season in which San Francisco was just 14-18 ATS, the Dons have started this campaign with a 2-1 record against the number.
However, they've had a relatively demanding mid-major non-conference schedule, doing battle with North Dakota State and Montana in two of their three games.
I'm expecting this trend to continue, especially considering my Bet Labs Sports Insights system — "Bad Expectation Favorites — likes the Dons to cover 9.5-point spread against their opponent, Portland State.
This system has an all-time return on investment (ROI) of 4%, including a 54% hit rate. This season alone (albeit it's a very small sample size of seven games), it has a 10% ROI and a 57% hit rate.
For more on the theory of this system, I explain below:
"This system focuses on early season college basketball favorites that underperformed expectations the year before.
These teams typically won games outright but failed to cover spreads, leading bettors to view them as unreliable favorites.
The market often reacts by undervaluing them at the start of the new season, creating opportunity in games one through nine when rosters have matured and preseason adjustments take hold.
By limiting to spreads inside 10 points, the focus stays on competitive matchups where talent can outweigh perception.
These teams usually return enough production to remain strong straight-up, but now carry lighter betting pressure and more realistic lines.
In essence, Bad Expectation Favorites are teams that disappointed gamblers last season but have corrected their market price early, offering value before the betting public catches up."
Pick: San Francisco -9.5
New Mexico vs. Santa Clara
This game may not get national attention — especially on a college football Saturday — but the battle between New Mexico and Santa Clara is one of the most underrated early-season college basketball matchups on the board.
The Lobos are projected to be one of the best teams in the Mountain West this season, and they've backed that up through three games.
Even though the competition hasn't exactly been stiff, they're averaging 96 points per game and Jake Hall — the Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year — is putting up 30.7 points on his own.
On the flip side, Santa Clara reached its first NCAA Tournament since 1996 last season, and with Gonzaga off to the Pac-12 and Saint Mary's breaking in a new head coach, Herb Sendek's squad is considered the frontrunner in the WCC.
The Broncos are off to a 4-0 start to this season, including a road win at North Texas.
With this game essentially being a coin flip, I'm staying away from the spread. Instead, I'm going to focus my attention on the total and back the under.
You might be saying: Well, how can you take an under in a New Mexico game, especially with Santa Clara's early-season pace?
Even though the Broncos are running at one of the fastest tempos in the nation (according to Bart Torvik), this type of, potentially, gritty game will incentivize a slower pace than they've shown so far this season.
Also, our "Rebound Unders" system — which says strong rebounding teams in non-conference settings can quietly suppress scoring more than the market anticipates — backs my thoughts on the play.
Specifically, the Broncos are in the top 100 in defensive rebounding, meaning they limit second-chance opportunities and force scoring in the half-court.
I expect a much different game than these two have played to start their seasons.
Pick: Under 164.5
