NCAA Basketball Best Bets for February 8: Loyola Marymount Is Ready to Roar
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Rainman M.
- February 8, 2025
Top NCAAB Pick: Loyola Marymount +3.5 (-110) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
The top sportsbooks have released their betting odds for today’s college basketball action.
Five games, in particular, interest me as worth investing in: Boston College vs. Syracuse, Wisconsin vs. Iowa, South Carolina vs. Kentucky, Georgia Tech vs. Virginia, and San Francisco vs. Loyola Marymount.
For your best bets, I will recommend investing in a money-line parlay, and a couple of spread picks. Don’t miss out!
Boston College Eagles vs. Syracuse Orange
Saturday, February 08, 2025 – 12:00 PM ET at JMA Wireless Dome
Great Spot for Syracuse
Under head coach Adrian Autry, Syracuse is 12-1 in its first home game following a loss. This trend is legitimate: even North Carolina was a victim of it last year.
Duke this year was the only team to buck the trend, but this shouldn’t worry us, because Duke is arguably one of the top two teams in the nation.
Why Boston College Won’t Win
Boston College, a team that hasn’t won on the road all year and that has even lost at Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, and Virginia by double digits will not upset Syracuse on Syracuse’s home floor.
The best way to beat Syracuse is to force the Orange to shoot threes, but Boston College’s interior defense is terrible.
Among other things, Eagles defenders lack a concept of how, when defending ball-screens, to account for the roll man without letting the ball handler use the screen to steamroll to the basket for an easy layup.
Look just over five minutes into the second half of Syracuse’s game at Boston College to see what I mean. The Eagles rank close to last in the ACC at limiting two-point efficiency, which is why they gave up 79 points at home to Syracuse.
Syracuse won that game by eight points because a Boston College team that regularly struggles to reach 70 points can’t keep pace.
Parlay Leg 1: Syracuse ML (-360) at BetOnline
Wisconsin Badgers vs. Iowa Hawkeyes
Saturday, February 08, 2025 – 01:00 PM ET at Carver-Hawkeye Arena
Why Wisconsin Will Win
The Badgers are the only team in this game that can play defense. They specialize at stopping wings. Hence, they went on the road and held Rutgers and Northwestern, both teams led by wings, to 63 and 69 points, respectively.
Iowa’s top shot-taker is a wing, Payton Sandfort. When Iowa played at Wisconsin, he scored two points.
The Hawkeyes rank last in the conference in defensive efficiency, while Wisconsin ranks eighth in the nation in offensive efficiency.
When these two teams met, the Badgers amassed 116 points. They can score 30 points fewer today and still win.
Parlay Leg 2: Wisconsin ML (-240) at BetOnline
South Carolina Gamecocks vs. Kentucky Wildcats
Saturday, February 08, 2025 – 12:00 PM ET at Rupp Arena
Why Kentucky Will Win
The only reason why Kentucky wouldn’t beat South Carolina is if it were to lack focus. But the Wildcats are sure to be focused because they are coming off two losses.
They feature one of the nation’s best offenses, as they regularly score between 80 and 100 points at home.
Conversely, South Carolina’s offense is ugly and painful to watch. The Gamecocks commit terrible turnovers and shoot the ball poorly. They simply don’t execute anywhere near the level that Kentucky does.
Four of South Carolina’s five road losses came by double digits. They lost at Vanderbilt by three and won at Boston College. The Gamecocks are not going to challenge a focused Kentucky team in Rupp Arena.
Parlay Leg 3: Kentucky ML (-700) at BetOnline
The Parlay
- Syracuse ML (-360)
- Wisconsin ML (-240)
- Kentucky ML (-700)
NCAAB Pick: Three-Legged Parlay (+107) at BetOnline
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs. Virginia Cavaliers
Saturday, February 08, 2025 – 05:30 PM ET at John Paul Jones Arena
Virginia’s Fade Spot
Whenever the Cavaliers look very good in a game, they never fail to look terrible in the next one.
For example, they competed hard against a tough Memphis team and covered the spread, staying within two points. Afterward, they beat lowly American by only five points at home.
When they got a big revenge win against NC State, their following game was a 20-point home loss to Louisville. After nearly upsetting SMU, they lost by 20 again to Louisville. A 15-point home loss to Notre Dame followed their big win over Boston College. Their most recent game was a 16-point victory at Pitt.
The pattern is perfect so far with a great data sample, so we should expect a poor showing against a Georgia Tech team that also knows how to win on the road.
NCAAB Pick: Georgia Tech +2 (-110) at BetOnline
San Francisco Dons vs. Loyola Marymount Lions
Saturday, February 08, 2025 – 09:00 PM ET at Gersten Pavilion
A Different Team at Home
It might seem like a no-brainer to play San Francisco because the Dons won the first meeting between these teams 70-55.
But Loyola Marymount regularly gets blown out by tough competition on the road. The Lions also lost by 29 at Colorado State, by 14 at Washington State, and by over 20 points at Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga. At home, though, the Lions upset Santa Clara and surprised Oregon State by 21 points.
Fixable Errors
While the Lions lost the first meeting at San Francisco fair and square, they made a lot of very fixable mistakes that their head coach, who will presumably rewatch that game, will be aware of.
First of all, Loyola Marymount is normally solid at avoiding turnovers. The Lions’ offense is led by a senior point guard, Will Johnston, who ranks highly at limiting his turnovers. However, the Dons accumulated 17 points off Loyola Marymount turnovers, making the difference in the game — they won by 15.
Second, their top player, Jevon Porter, attempted six threes. He made none of them. All he needs to do is stick to thriving around the basket where the Dons could not stop him. Or he could maybe make a single three?
Third, their top three-point shooter attempted only two threes.
Loyola Marymount’s Well-Organized Defense
The Lions held San Francisco to an inefficient performance. This is a fact that was obscured by their unusual turnover problem.
Their defense is difficult to get good looks against. Against ball-screens, they like to rely on drop coverage in order to keep a defender positioned in front of the opposing ball-handler. By deterring the ball-handler from driving to the basket, the defender in drop coverage will buy enough time for the initial on-ball defender to recover to his man.
They rely on defenders rotating crisply in order to prevent favorable three-point opportunities.
When not dealing with ball-screens, Lions defenders like to stay glued to their man behind the arc, preventing easy passes from the defense that could otherwise lead to open three-point shot attempts.
Loyola Marymount is also a tall team, with tall guards and tall wings. The nation’s ninth-tallest team, it naturally has an easier time contesting three-point opportunities.
San Francisco relies heavily on three-pointers and will struggle, in sum, against a Loyola Marymount defense that is one of the best in their conference at limiting both the three-point efficiency and the three-point attempts of opposing offenses.
San Francisco’s Let-Down Spot
The Dons are, on top of everything else, in a let-down spot after their nail-biting win over Saint Mary’s.
After their last good wins, they beat 13-point underdog Pacific by eight points and lost by 20 at Saint Mary’s.
Takeaway
Loyola Marymount will rely on its well-organized defense to hold San Francisco to a low point total.
The Lions, on offense, managed 55 points at San Francisco despite committing so many turnovers and despite lacking a game-plan that would have put their best players in a position to succeed.
With more of Porter near the basket and more of Johnston shooting and with crisper play overall, they will blow past 55 points and approach 70 points.
San Francisco, playing on the road this time and unable to rely on Lions turnovers, will score in the low 60s.
This score prediction doesn’t even account for the Dons’ let-down spot, meaning that it is the worst possible realistic score line and we could very well see an even stronger Lions victory.
NCAAB Pick: Loyola Marymount +3.5 (-110) at BetOnline
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds products
