College Hoops Best Bet (1/22/25)

Author: Dylan Lieck | January 22, 2025 | 6:43 P.M. CST

CBB Overall Record: 20-7

Best Bet Tonight: Ole Miss -3.5 vs. Texas A&M

Ole Miss has been one of the better surprises this season. Chris Beard was an elite basketball coach when at Texas Tech and during the start of his tenure at Texas. Obviously the circumsanstances of his exit in Austin were unfortunate, but without clear details of what actually happened, he took over the Ole Miss program the following season, and hasn’t looked back. And to be honest, he’s building this program just like he did in Lubbock. He has Mark Adams (old assistant at Tech) back with him in Oxford, and they’ve employed the famous “No-Middle Defense” that the Red Raiders were so good at under Beard. That along with some talented players, good shooting, and high effort guys have led Ole Miss to a 5-1 start to SEC play. Their lone loss came against Mississippi State ON THE ROAD in overtime in their last outing. I like them to bounce back here against the Aggies.

Although A&M did get Wade Taylor back, they aren’t the same Aggies team we saw at the end of the year last season with those dynamic guards. They are still elite on the offensive glass, but they are abysmal shooting the ball. They rank outside the top 300 teams in Division 1 in three point shooting, hitting on less than 30.5% of their shots from beyond the arc. They are highly reliant on creating extra possessions and on getting to the free throw line. This is a poor matchup for the Aggies as the Rebels are elite defensively and unless A&M has an uncharacteristic shooting night against a very good perimeter defense, I don’t see how they score enough to hang with Ole Miss.

Official Pick: Ole Miss -3.5 (-110)

Play Rating: 2-Star