NCAA Basketball Best Bets for March 8: Texas Tech Is on a Roll
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Rainman M.
- March 8, 2025
Top NCAAB Pick: Texas Tech -11 (-110) at Bookmaker (visit our Bookmaker Review)
The sportsbooks have released their betting odds for today’s college basketball action, and three games, in particular, interest me as worth investing in. Let’s take a look!
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Saturday, March 08, 2025 – 02:15 PM ET at LJVM Coliseum
Wake Forest’s Offense
On offense, the Demon Deacons are uniquely averse to shooting threes. They rank 357th nationally in three-point conversion rate. One single player converts at least 32 percent of his three-point attempts. Instead of shooting threes, they primarily want to attack inside the arc.
Hunter Sallis and Cameron Hildreth lead their offensive attack. Neither guy is a shooter. Both players are instead known as slashers.
Georgia Tech’s Interior Defense
Wake Forest’s offense will be punished on Saturday for its dependence on scoring inside.
The Yellow Jackets’ interior defense is spearheaded by center Baye Ndongo, whose participation in drop coverage regularly positions him near the basket, although he also possesses the mobility and nimbleness to rotate quickly to guard shooters further away from the basket.
Led by Ndongo, the Yellow Jackets are one of the nation’s best teams at limiting efficiency inside the arc.
Georgia Tech Will Score 70+
The Yellow Jackets will win by scoring over 70 points, which five of Wake Forest’s last six opponents have done.
The Demon Deacons are vulnerable especially to offenses that can move the ball well, which is why the ACC’s second-worst offense NC State was able to score 85 points against them.
Good passers accumulate a lot of assists against the Demon Deacons because their ball-screen tactics and aggressive style of defense create this vulnerability. Wake Forest allows one of the highest assist rates in the nation.
Georgia Tech’s offense has a strong outlook today because it features solid passers. Point guard Naithan George is their best one. He is their key distributor who reliably generates offense. George’s assist rate is 34th-best in the nation.
Takeaway
Wake Forest won’t succeed from deep, but it will also struggle inside against Georgia Tech’s interior defense. The Yellow Jackets will win by using their ball movement and passing to exceed 70 points.
NCAAB Pick: Georgia Tech +6.5 (-109) at Bookmaker
SMU Mustangs vs. Florida State Seminoles
Saturday, March 08, 2025 – 04:15 PM ET at Tucker Center
Florida State’s Struggling Defense
The Seminoles enter today’s contest on a four-game losing streak during which they have allowed 89 points to Louisville, 96 points to North Carolina, 100 points to Duke, and 60 points to lowly Virginia.
Virginia won at Florida State largely because the Cavaliers were able to convert eleven of their 24 three-point attempts.
On defense, the Seminoles have proven to be especially vulnerable from behind the arc where they allow a high rate of threes and a high three-point conversion rate.
SMU’s Shooters
While the Mustangs can score a lot inside the arc, as evident in their last game against the Orange, they are especially solid from deep. They own the nation’s tenth-best three-point conversion rate.
Three different Mustang players convert over 38 percent of their three-point attempts. Two of them shoot over 42 percent from behind the arc. With guys like Chuck Harris and Kario Oquendo, the Mustangs are well-prepared to score a lot of points against the Seminoles.
SMU’s Interior Defense
SMU’s interior defense will be crucial in this game because the Seminoles are reliant on scoring inside. Compared to ACC teams, Florida State both converts and attempts threes at one of the very lowest rates.
The Seminoles will want to score inside, but SMU’s defense is tough to score on inside, as Syracuse’s top scorer JJ Starling found out when he scored all of ten points on Tuesday — Starling in that game suffered his worst two-point conversion rate in a game since January 29.
Video footage shows how the Mustangs converge on the opposing ball-handler as he nears the basket. Teammates will dig and apply other tactics to disturb the ball-handler as he penetrates to the basket.
Moreover, SMU’s center will remain positioned near the basket to take away the opposing team’s potential to use cutters or ball screens to attack the basket.
The Mustangs are, because of what their players are coached to do, one of the nation’s best teams at limiting two-point scoring.
Takeaway
SMU will have no problem scoring against Florida State’s vulnerable defense, whereas the Seminoles will depend on scoring inside but will struggle to do so against SMU’s well-organized defense.
NCAAB Pick: SMU -3 (-110) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Arizona State Sun Devils
Saturday, March 08, 2025 – 08:00 PM ET at Desert Financial Arena
Another Late-Season Collapse
Last year, the Sun Devils lost their last three regular-season games — by 18 to Arizona, eight to USC, and twelve to UCLA.
This year, the Sun Devils are collapsing once again at the end of the season. They enter today’s game with three consecutive double-digit losses: by ten to BYU, 26 against Utah, and by 13 to Arizona.
Their defense has been especially bad, as it allowed over 90 points in all three of those games.
Texas Tech Will Win Big
Texas Tech has the nation’s ninth-most efficient offense, as it combines an impressive mixture of reliable inside scorers and high-quality shooters that includes Chance McMillian who ranks 80th nationally in two-point conversion rate and 29th nationally in three-point conversion rate.
The Red Raiders also have a great defense. It’s one weakness is inside, but Arizona State is not the team to take advantage.
Texas Tech lacks strong interior defenders and is thus vulnerable to big centers like Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson as well as to efficient inside scorers like Kansas’ KJ Adams. But Arizona State’s offense is very weak inside the arc and depends instead on shooting threes.
Texas Tech’s Perimeter Defense
Texas Tech is well-prepared for a Sun Devils offense that has the nation’s 64th-highest point distribution from deep, because it is devoted to guarding the three-point line, allowing the 315th-highest rate of threes.
The Red Raiders held BYU, a team that has the nation’s 18th-highest point distribution from deep, to 5-of-23 shooting from behind the arc. They reliably lock down three-point shooters, likewise stifling Baylor.
While their three-point stats are excellent, they are actually deflated because the Red Raiders’ perimeter defense was rather weak before January. But they evidently figured things out.
Whereas Arizona State will struggle to score, its terrible defense will help prolong the team’s collapse in a game that will see a very high point total from Texas Tech.
The Red Raiders are on a roll at the right time, having beaten Kansas by five in its venue and Colorado by 16 in Lubbock in their last two games.
NCAAB Pick: Texas Tech -11 (-110) at Bookmaker (visit our Bookmaker Review)
*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.
