NCAA Basketball Best Bets for February 28: Can Dartmouth and UCLA Cover?
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Willie Bee
- February 28, 2025
Top NCAAB Pick: UCLA +5.5 (-110) at Bookmaker (visit our Bookmaker Review)
A few conference tournaments with begin a week from now, while others close out their slates. Jockeying tourney seeding is what it’s all about right now as we look for winning picks at top sportsbooks in Ivy League and Big Ten action.
Let’s dive into the college basketball betting odds and get the best lines before placing your bets!
Don’t miss out on daily betting insights—head over to our YouTube channel! Today, our expert analyzes the Davidson vs. VCU and UCLA vs. Purdue games.
Yale Bulldogs vs. Dartmouth Big Green
Friday, February 28, 2025 – 05:00 PM ET at Leede Arena
Yale has already clinched the regular season title in the Ivy League, and the No. 1 seed during Ivy Madness that comes with it. That doesn’t mean, however, the Bulldogs still don’t have something to play for when they travel to Dartmouth on Friday to take on the Big Green.
Heritage Sports thinks Yale has a lot to play for with a 9-point chalk line drawn. The scoreboard targets Yale 82, and Dartmouth 74.
Both Sides on Good ATS Runs
Yale ran its win streak to a dozen last Saturday in an easy 90-64 rout of Ivy bottom-feeder Columbia. John Poulakidas scored 28 and Bez Mbeng posted a double-double as the Bulldogs pulled away midway through the first half and never looked back in covering a fat 16-point home spread.
It marked the sixth cover in the last eight games for Yale, as well as the third ‘under’ winner in the Bulldogs’ last four trips to the floor.
Dartmouth has also been treating its backers to a good run of winning tickets the last seven weeks. A 76-61 win as 7½-point underdogs at Princeton last Saturday was the eight cover in the last 10 games for the Big Green, as well as the fourth ‘under’ in their last five contests.
Elis Have Won 16 of Last 17
The Bulldogs used a 15-0 run that lasted about 8 minutes across the two halves to beat the Big Green when the two met in New Haven a little more than five weeks ago. The 83-67 final pushed a 16-point line some shops closed with, and was just short of the -16½ others offered.
Last year’s game in Hanover ended in a 76-61 Yale win as 12-point chalk on the NCAAB odds. Yale leads the all-time series 124-98, and 3 of the last 4 were ‘under’ winners.
The Bulldogs are heads-&-shoulders above the rest of the Ivy and playing for a perfect league record. That works against the Bulldogs against the spread in this one. Take the points.
NCAAB Pick: Dartmouth +9 (-108) at Heritage Sports (visit our Heritage Sports Review)
UCLA Bruins vs. Purdue Boilermakers
Friday, February 28, 2025 – 08:00 PM ET at Mackey Arena
The last couple of weeks have been tough on Matt Painter and Purdue as the Boilermakers prepare to host UCLA on Friday in something of an elimination game as far as seeding for the upcoming Big Ten Tournament goes.
A consensus among top sportsbooks is Purdue -½, with the bar for the scoreboard set at Purdue 72, UCLA 67.
UCLA Leads All-Time Series 13-3
The Bruins and Boilermakers are part of a 3-way knot – along with Maryland – for fourth place in the Big Ten standings, each with 11-6 records, and the loser could be out of the running for one of the top 4 seeds in the B1G tourney to earn a bye into the quarterfinals.
This is the first time UCLA and Purdue have met as Big Ten opponents, and the first time the two have met since a home-&-home scheduling a quarter century ago.
Both of those matchups – which were played on consecutive December 30 dates in 1999 and 2000 went to UCLA. The Bruins also beat the Boilermakers to win the 1969 NCAA Championship, and in the Final Four of the 1980 Men’s Tournament.
Can Boilers Regroup After Ugly Loss?
Mick Cronin’s club has been stuck in a lose one, win one cycle for the past couple of weeks as they begin their final conference road swing of the season. They’ll be at Northwestern on Monday, and going back to LA with a perfect 2-0 mark on the journey is the goal.
The Bruins are coming off a 69-61 home win over Ohio State this past Sunday when they used an 8-0 spurt early in the second half to account for the final margin of victory. That run also was behind UCLA eking out a 7½-point cover.
Purdue catches a little sympathy for three of the losses in the current skid taking place on the road. Still, there’s no excuse for the 73-58 loss last Sunday at Indiana where the Boilermakers were favored by 4.
A 21-4 run late in the first half gave Purdue a 12-point halftime lead, only to give it all away thanks to a horrible offensive effort in the second half.
After beating USC on February 7th to move to 11-2 in conference play, Purdue was in great shape to win a third consecutive Big Ten regular season title. Just 21 days later, the Boilermakers are on the verge of failing to even finish fourth in the race.
NCAAB Pick: UCLA +5.5 (-110) at Bookmaker
*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 product.
