Editor’s Note: For a little more than three years now, Joe has been publishing picks here and back at All Things NIT, our former site. Overall, the results have been positive, with an average return on investment, per pick, of 0.7% when weighting by confidence (1 for low, 2 for medium, 3 for high) across 1,978 published picks, not including bets that remain pending, like futures. 0.7% doesn’t sound amazing, but relative to what else you get on the internet?
Use these picks at your own risk. Only you are responsible for any money you lose, and you should not bet more than you can afford to lose. If you have a gambling problem, get help.
Lines for these come from the Vegas consensus or the closest approximation available at the time picks are written, unless otherwise noted. KenPom is heavily used in making college basketball picks.
Iowa @ Minnesota
Minnesota’s missing two cogs from an already thin rotation. Iowa thrives in an up-tempo game where it can get the offense going. If Fran McCaffery’s willing to go deep in order to push the pace, and sacrifice some Keegan Murray minutes for that effort, Iowa should run the Gophers off the floor. Based on how willing McCaffery’s been to go to his bench so far this year (Iowa’s bench has the 17th-most minutes in Division I, compared to Minnesota’s 358th-place ranking in that category, which is last in the country), the Hawkeyes should romp.
Pick: Iowa -7 (-110). Low confidence.
