Best College Basketball Bets Today: Major Upsets After the First Few Conference Games

After the first few conference games, we have already seen some incredible upsets, including the then-13th-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini losing at home to a struggling USC team.

Now, the Fighting Illini will look to grab a road win against Indiana in a bounce-back game, while either the Ole Miss Rebels or Alabama Crimson Tide will suffer their first conference loss of the season.

Keep reading below for our best college basketball picks today for the Ole Miss vs. Alabama and Illinois vs. Indiana games!

The odds for today's college basketball games are from FanDuel Sportsbook. Place a $5 bet at FanDuel and claim $200 in bonus bets.

No. 21 Ole Miss @ No. 4 Alabama

• Date: Tuesday, January 14

• Time: 7:00 pm EST

• Moneyline: Ole Miss +385 | Alabama -520

• Spread: Ole Miss +9.5 (-102) | Alabama -9.5 (-120)

• Total: Over 162.5 (-110) | Under 162.5 (-110)

All odds are available via FanDuel Sportsbook but are subject to change.

PICK: Alabama -9.5 (-120) at FanDuel

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The Ole Miss Rebels kicked off the 2024-25 regular season with a rock-solid 14-2 record; their two losses have come at the hands of the Purdue Boilermakers and the Memphis Tigers.

In fact, since their loss to the Tigers, Ole Miss has found some momentum, storming to a 3-0 start in the hyper-competitive SEC; however, tonight will be the Rebels’ toughest test yet.

Meanwhile, Alabama has been on fire since dropping a narrow two-point game to Oregon, rattling off eight consecutive wins, including victories over Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Creighton, and North Carolina.

The Crimson Tide have won those four games by an average of 14.3 points. Impressive.

This team’s biggest issue has been with their 3-point shooting, as they have shot 32% (Oregon) and 31% (Purdue) from behind the arc in their two losses.

Luckily, Alabama has been better from deep in recent games, shooting at a 35.3% clip in its three SEC games.

But even more impressive than their uptick in 3-point shooting is the fact that the Crimson Tide have turned the ball over merely ten times per game over their most recent three-game stretch, a fantastic rate given the team’s pace (second nationally in adjusted tempo).

Ole Miss has one of the strongest perimeter defenses in the SEC, holding its past three opponents to roughly 19% from deep, but the Crimson Tide don’t have to knock down a ton of 3s to beat their opponents.

I’ll “roll” with the Tide at home, where they have looked unbeatable recently.

No. 19 Illinois @ Indiana

• Date: Tuesday, January 14

• Time: 7:00 pm EST

• Moneyline: Illinois -176 | Indiana +146

• Spread: Illinois -3.5 (-115) | Indiana +3.5 (-105)

• Total: Over 158.5 (-110) | Under 158.5 (-110)

All odds are available via FanDuel Sportsbook but are subject to change.

PICK: Indiana +3.5 (-105) at FanDuel

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Illinois was able to crush the Nittany Lions without Big Ten Player of the Year candidate Kasparas Jakucionis, but it was not as lucky at home against the USC Trojans, a team that Indiana had recently dropped by double-digits.

Jakucionis’s status for the team’s Tuesday night battle against the Hoosiers is still up in the air, which could continue to cause issues, especially with the rest of Illinois’s backcourt struggling to shoot the ball with any semblance of efficiency.

The rest of the Fighting Illini backcourt, which includes Kylan Boswell, Tre White, and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, have been terrible 3-point shooters this season.

Boswell, White, and Gibbs-Lawhorn shoot 26.5%, 27.3%, and 27.3%, respectively, from 3-point land.

Without Jakucionis, this is a poor 3-point shooting team. 

The Fighting Illini also rebound their own misses 11% less on the road than at home, so rebounding might not be as big of an advantage, especially against 7-foot center Oumar Ballo.

While Indiana has been wildly inconsistent this season, it has looked solid in conference play at home, winning all three of its Big Ten games in Assembly Hall by double-digits.

In fact, the Hoosiers have an 11-0 home record and have covered the spread in seven of those 11 games.

I don’t think Indiana will beat an Illinois team that is fresh off a horrible home loss to USC and looking for a bounce-back win; however, the Hoosiers should keep this game to a one-score possession on their home floor.