Best College Basketball Picks Today: Maryland Looks To Stay Red-Hot On Thursday

Two Big Ten matchups will undoubtedly be the highlight of Thursday night’s slate, as the USC Trojans will look to knock off No. 20 Maryland on its home floor.

Northwestern also hopes to play road spoiler when it travels to Columbus, Ohio, for a conference bout with the Buckeyes.

Keep reading below for our best college basketball picks today for these two matchups!

USC @ No. 20 Maryland Odds

Odds for USC vs. Maryland can be found in the table below. Pick your favorites and place your bets, today!

PICK: Maryland -10.5 (-115) at FanDuel

This should be a fairly straightforward game for the Maryland Terrapins, a team that has been scalding hot since suffering a poor loss on the road to Northwestern on January 16th.

The Terps have won seven of their past eight and have shot roughly 49% from the field and 41% from 3-point range in that stretch.

In addition to their hot shooting, Maryland also has a significant frontcourt advantage over USC with JuJu Reese and Derik Queen.

Reese and Queen help the Terps rank in the top 40 nationally in total rebounding rate this season, while the Trojans have the 34th-lowest total rebounding rate over their past three games.

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USC Prediction

The Trojans have stumbled since handing the Michigan State Spartans their first loss in Big Ten play; they lost to a Barnhizer-less Northwestern team and at home against Minnesota. Yikes.

Regarding consistency, USC has shown none recently, hitting 12 of its 16 attempts from 3-point land versus Penn State but knocking down merely 15.4% of its 3s against Purdue.

Rebounding has been a huge problem area for the Trojans recently, and it needs to be corrected if they want to return to the win column before the end of the season.

Maryland Prediction

The Terps are winners of seven of their past eight games and have been one of the most efficient offenses in the country since the middle of January.

Derik Queen and Julian Reese make up one of the top frontcourts in the conference and the nation, while Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Rodney Rice, and Selton Miguel have been shooting the lights out of the ball.

Defensively, Maryland boasts a fringe top-20 defense, which elevates substantially on its home floor.

Northwestern @ Ohio State Odds

Odds for Northwestern vs. Ohio State matchup are listed in the table below. Read our analysis and place your bets.

PICK: Northwestern +10.5 (-118) at FanDuel

The Wildcats are the only Big Ten team that is winless on the road, but their average scoring margin is merely -3.5, proving that they keep those games within relative striking distance.

Purdue is the only team that has beaten Northwestern by double-digits in a road game

Many of those close road losses came with Jalen Leach and Brooks Barnhizer available, but Nick Martinelli, Ty Berry, and Matthew Nicholson form a formidable trio.

And, historically, Chris Collins-led teams don’t throw in the towel early.

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Northwestern Prediction

Before suffering a season-ending foot injury, senior forward Brooks Barnhizer was having a fantastic campaign, averaging more than 17 points per game for the Wildcats.

However, Northwestern has been in a free fall since he was sidelined, dropping four of its following five games; a narrow two-point win at home against USC was the only success in that stretch.

Then, the Wildcats lost Jalen Leach, their starting point guard, to an ACL injury.

The Wildcats enter this Big Ten road matchup against the Buckeyes as the only team in the conference that has failed to win an away game.

Ohio State Prediction

It has been a season of “almosts” for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Of their 11 losses this season, the Buckeyes have dropped five by one possession. Unsurprisingly, they rank 327th in luck (KenPom) in the 2024-25 campaign.

Despite the roller-coaster season, Ohio State is still projected to make the field of 64 for the NCAA Tournament; however, the Bucks don’t have as much wiggle room as they would like.

Only two of their remaining five games, including this bout, are on their home floor, so Ohio State must win this.