Best College Basketball Picks Today: SEC Heavyweight Matchup Highlights Tuesday’s Slate

It isn’t a loaded college basketball slate on Thursday night by any stretch of the imagination.

However, there are still two ranked matchups, including AAC conference action between Wichita State and No. 24 Memphis, as well as a Big Ten conference bout that features Maryland and No. 17 Illinois.

Keep reading below for our analysis and best college basketball picks today!

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No. 12 Kentucky @ No. 8 Tennessee

• Date: Tuesday, January 28

• Time: 7:00 pm EST

PICK: Kentucky +9.5 (-110) at FanDuel

The Tennessee Volunteers are fresh off a two-point road loss to the top-ranked Auburn Tigers in a low-scoring affair.

Talk about a heartbreak. 

As a reward, the Vols now get to host the 12th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats, a team that should be motivated after dropping back-to-back SEC matchups.

While the Wildcats haven’t had the best start to conference play, they are still an incredibly dangerous team, as evidenced by the fact they rank fifth in adjusted offensive efficiency, third in points per game, and 23rd in effective field goal percentage.

Can the Vols’ elite, top-ranked defense shut down the high-powered Kentucky offense?

This will be a clash of tempos, as the Vols are one of the slowest teams nationally (335th in adjusted tempo) and the Wildcats are one of the fastest (34th in adjusted tempo). 

One of the reasons that Tennessee had as much success as it did defensively against Auburn is because the Vols grinded the game to a halt; they are best on both ends when playing in the half-court.

Expect Kentucky to try and get its offense in transition off of missed shots. I see the Wildcats putting up just enough points behind their perimeter-heavy offense to keep this game to single-digits.

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UCF @ No. 11 Kansas

• Date: Tuesday, January 28

• Time: 8:00 pm EST

PICK: Kansas -13.5 (-105) at FanDuel

We’ve seen this scenario play out already. 

For the second time during their 2024-25 campaign, the Kansas Jayhawks will have suffered a devastating home loss and immediately face the UCF Knights afterwards.

The first time this happened? Kansas eviscerated the Knights by 51 on their own floor. This time around? The Jayhawks will be playing in front of their own fans at Allen Fieldhouse.

Despite their abundance of individual talent, the offensive end of the floor has been the Achilles heel for the Jayhawks; however, they tore the Knights’ defense apart, pouring in 99 points on 51% shooting from the field and 39% from behind the arc.

On the other hand, UCF finished the game shooting a putrid 21% from the floor and 23% from 3-point land. Yikes.

Could it be a different story for the Knights this time around?

I don’t see it happening.

The Jayhawks are again in a perfect bounce-back spot and will be on their home floor.

Kansas was also able to get a substantial output from Hunter Dickinson (27 points) in its first matchup with UCF, which allowed the Jayhawks to work from the inside out offensively. 

If the Knights double-team Dickinson, he has just enough passing vision to find the cutter or spot-up shooter on the perimeter.

If they don’t, Dickinson could torch Moustapha Thiam in the post once again.

Either way, I anticipate another blowout.

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