March 13 CBB Lines

The final Saturday of regular-season college basketball is upon us and the March 6 CBB lines are now live on BetRivers.com, with a wide variety of lines, props, and a litany of college basketball futures bets. Rob Dauster, a longtime national college basketball writer, and co-founder of the Field of 68 Podcast Network breaks down the March 6 CBB lines for Saturday and the bets he likes the best.

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL ODDS: MARCH 6 CBB LINES

Indiana (12-13, 7-11) at #23 Purdue (17-8, 12-6), 2 p.m. ET
MONEYLINE: Purdue -315, Indiana +255
SPREAD: Purdue -7
OVER/UNDER: 134 points
Click here for the full list of Purdue-Indiana odds.

This is Archie Miller’s fourth season at Indiana. This will be his seventh time playing against Purdue. His record in the previous six games is 0-6, and he’s lost by an average of 9.3 points. Indiana has lost their last four games and five of their last six. They are 1-5 ATS in that stretch. Purdue, on the other had, has won four in a row — covering in all four — and 10 of their last 13 to climb into the top 15 on KenPom and give themselves a shot at a top-five seed.

Painter owns Archie, mainly because Purdue has a ton of size to take away Trayce Jackson-Davis, plays a gapping defense to limit penetration and dares a bad shooting team to beat them from three. Give me all the Purdue here.

#17 Oklahoma State (17-7, 10-7) at #6 West Virginia (18-7, 11-5), 2 p.m. ET
MONEYLINE: WVU -335, Oklahoma State +270
SPREAD: WVU -7.5
OVER/UNDER: 148.5 points
Click here for the full list of WVU-Oklahoma State odds.

This was shaping up to be one of the most intriguing games of the day, but the status of Cade Cunningham — who rolled his ankle in the final minutes of a loss at Baylor on Thursday — clouds that.

Now, in theory, Oklahoma State matches up really well with West Virginia because of their ability to slash and get to the rim. That’s where the Mountaineers struggle defensively. But the combination of Cade’s ankle and the fact that the Pokes are playing their fourth game in eight days (a back-to-back against archrival Oklahoma before a trip to Baylor on Thursday) means that their legs are likely gassed.

So keep an eye on Cade’s status here, but I tend to lean West Virginia given the context of the situation.

#4 Illinois (19-6, 15-4) at #7 Ohio State (18-7, 12-7), 4 p.m. ET
MONEYLINE: Ohio State -132, Illinois +112
SPREAD: Ohio State -2
OVER/UNDER: 151 points
Click here for the full list of Ohio State-Illinois odds.

Ohio State has lost three straight games. Illinois is coming off of the best win that anyone in college basketball has landed this season, and there is a chance that they get their star point guard, Ayo Dosunmu, back from concussion protocol today.

All of that said, I think I still like Ohio State in this spot.

What Illinois did against Michigan defensively was to play a heavy drop coverage against the Wolverine ball-screens while refusing to help off of Michigan’s shooters on the perimeter. This worked for two reasons:

1. Mike Smith and Eli Brooks are somewhat limited as shot creators, and playing a drop coverage without helping forces the ball-handler to be the source of offense.

2. Kofi Cockburn didn’t have to worry about leaving the paint because Hunter Dickinson wasn’t a threat outside of the charge circle.

Ohio State is going to have some of the same issues when it comes to their ball-handlers, but the difference here is that E.J. Liddell is a killer from the perimeter. He’s averaging 15.9 points this season, shooting 35.3 percent from three. In the first game against Illinois, he had 26 points and hit 4-7 from three.

Go Bucks.

Duke (11-10, 9-8) at North Carolina (15-9, 9-6), 6 p.m. ET
MONEYLINE: UNC -143, Duke +120
SPREAD: UNC -2.5
OVER/UNDER: 148 points
Click here for the full list of UNC-Duke odds.

I love Duke in this matchup, and it goes beyond the simple fact that the Blue Devils are probably on the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble with a loss. North Carolina can, I think, survive a loss, assuming that they can avoid any disasters in the NCAA tournament, but it’s a weird dynamic for the most historic rivalry in all of college basketball.

But there are a couple of things at play here: In the first matchup, Duke had Jalen Johnson, and while they have lost a couple of games in a row, I think just about everyone not named Jay Bilas agrees that Duke is better without Johnson on the roster. His absence has led to the emergence of Mark Williams, a 7-foot behemoth that will help the Blue Devils compete on the interior against UNC’s front line. Add to that that there were some outlier performances in the first matchup between these two teams:

– Caleb Love, a 23% three-point shooter, shot 4-5 from three
– UNC, who shoots 30.4% from three, went 10-15.
– Matthew Hurt, the ACC Player of the Year, had a season-low seven points

And despite all of that, Duke only lost 91-87.