December 12 CBB Lines

The weekend is here, and the college basketball schedule continues to adjust on the fly, making for some interesting December 12 CBB lines on BetRivers.com.

Rob Dauster, a longtime national college basketball writer, and co-founder of the Field of 68 Podcast Network, analyzes the December 12 CBB lines, with a focus on The Bragging Rights Game between No. 6 Illinois and unbeaten Missouri.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL ODDS: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12 CBB LINES

#6 ILLINOIS (4-1) at MISSOURI(4-0), 8 p.m. ET
MONEYLINE: Illinois -157, Missouri +130
SPREAD: Illinois -3
OVER/UNDER: 140 points
Click here for the full list of Illinois-Missouri odds.

When it comes to doing things like touting college basketball bets, the name of the game tends to be strong takes.

You have to have an opinion. And your opinion is the right opinion even if it is objectively the wrong opinion. Well, I have some unfortunate news for the people that are looking for a strong opinion on this game: I absolutely do not have one.

On the one hand, Illinois is awesome. They are legitimately a top ten team, maybe even top five. I still believe they are the best team in the Big Ten, even as we watch Luka Garza fully morph into Larry Bird. I bet heavily on them to win at Duke, which, in theory, would mean that I should want to bet heavily on them to win at Missouri, too.

Right?

Well …

Missouri might actually be good this year. They are old, starting four seniors. They have some really good, veteran guards. They beat Oregon on a neutral court. They won at Wichita State. Their leading scorer transferred to Missouri from … Illinois. This is a rivalry game. I’m not ready to fade Illinois in any spot, so if you’re going to tell me I have to make a pick, I would take Illinois (-3). The kicker for me is that the way to beat Illinois is to put Kofi Cockburn into ball-screens and play him off the floor, and Missouri is not the kind of team that will thrive doing that.

But I will not be betting on this game.

I’ll be kicking back with a beer and enjoying what should be an awesome end to a college basketball Saturday.

AUBURN (2-2) vs. MEMPHIS (4-2), 5:30 p.m. ET
MONEYLINE: Memphis -295, Auburn +230
SPREAD: Memphis -6.5
OVER/UNDER: 146 points
Click here for the full list of Auburn-Memphis odds.

I’ve made the mistake of betting on Memphis three times already this season, and I don’t think that I’m mentally prepared to invest in this group again.

That said, I do think that they are going to be able to impose the way that they want to play on this game.

Auburn wants to run. They aren’t doing it as much this season as they have in year’s past, but at their core, they are a program that presses, forces turnovers, and turns them into quick threes in transition. There’s a reason that they are top 50 in average possession length defensively. That plays into Memphis hands, as they are top 30 in average possession length offensively. At the same time, defensively, Memphis is going to try and force turnovers as well. When they are at their best is when a game gets stretched. Case in point: Memphis forces turnovers on 24 percent of their defensive possessions. Auburn turns the ball over on 24 percent of their offensive possessions.

To sum it all up, I think this is a game that will hit upwards of 75 possessions. And that should be enough to get us over 146 even if both of these teams stink offensively.

OREGON (3-1) at WASHINGTON (1-3), 8 p.m. ET
MONEYLINE: Oregon -400, Washington +300
SPREAD: Oregon -8
OVER/UNDER: 134 points

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE (2-1) at PEPPERDINE (3-2), 9 p.m. ET
MONEYLINE: Pepperdine -1667, Northridge +900
SPREAD: Pepperdine -14
OVER/UNDER: 157 points

Both of these plays are pretty simple for me.

I want to be fading Washington as much as possible right now, especially when it is with the best team in the Pac-12 who just got L.J. Figueroa eligible.

Along those same lines, I want to be fading Mark Gottfried, and there’s no better time to do that than when Northridge is playing at Pepperdine, who has a pair of potential pros on their roster in Colbey Ross and Kessler Edwards.