Football 
Tennis 
Horse Racing 
Mixed martial arts NCAA Basketball Saturday Best Bets: Last Bit of Madness for 2022
NCAA BASKETBALL December MADNESS BEST BETS: SATURDAY, December 31st
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Our resident college hoops expert Ej Garr has been steady and solid in dishing out basketball winners over the last 2 weeks, and he has one more day left to do some damage this year before we turn the calendar to 2023. He belted out another 2 – 0 on Thursday this week, and the plan is to finish 2022 on a high note!
There’s only one way to make that happen, so let’s see what he’s picked out for us today with the last bit of madness in December and 2022!
In this article:
- Wyoming Cowboys vs New Mexico Lobos Preview
- Wyoming Cowboys vs New Mexico Lobos Best Bet
- Santa Clara Broncos vs Saint Mary’s Gaels Preview
- Santa Clara Broncos vs Saint Mary’s Gaels Best Bet
Wyoming Cowboys vs New Mexico Lobos Preview
December 31, 21:00 (UK time)
The New Mexico Lobos have been perfect to open the campaign, and the 11 – 0 record out of the gate has been damn impressive. Apparently, the line setters want us to believe that today the Lobos will struggle in Laramie, and the -3.5 sure is a strange line as I see it.
I have been following the Mountain West and West Coast teams since my college days back in the 1980s, and yes I just said that. I know as well as anyone that Wyoming seems to always get inspired when they seemingly have no chance to win, but this season has not been one to keep me convinced of that at this juncture of the campaign.
The Cowboys are only 5 – 8 and they’ve only covered 3 games thus far, but yet an undefeated New Mexico team is only favoured by two buckets? What? Graham Ike isn’t making an appearance until next year, and Kenny Foster is set to miss his third straight game for the Cowboys too.
I will point out the same fact I did on Thursday about rebounding stats because Wyoming has no interior presence that can keep New Mexico off the glass. The Cowboys are ranked 322nd on the offensive boards, and New Mexico has won the battle of the rebounds in nearly every game this year.
Morris Udeze and Josiah Allick will both be busy grabbing rebounds, as they take in 7.8 and 7.7 boards a night each. Make no mistake that rebounding will be heavily emphasized again tonight and that will keep New Mexico up and in front all night.
Jaelen House, Morris Udeze, and Jamal Mashburn, Jr. are all averaging about 17 points a night, and don’t think for a second that the trio has to do it all. New Mexico goes 9 deep and Head Coach Rick Pitino will in no way let his team overlook Wyoming tonight. They try to label these trap games, but the only trap here is thinking that Wyoming can hang with the Lobos for 40 minutes.
Wyoming Cowboys vs New Mexico Lobos Best Bet
I am not buying what the line setters are selling, and trying to convince me that Wyoming has some new year miracle to offer just isn’t in the cards. New Mexico is going to walk out of Laramie 14 – 0, and then they are going to smack Fresno State around the next time they take the floor on January 3.
- Selection: New Mexico -3.5
- Best odds: 1.93 (Pinnacle)
- Stakes 4/10
More Wyoming Cowboys vs New Mexico Lobos Tips
Santa Clara Broncos vs Saint Mary’s Gaels Preview
January 1, 00:00 (UK time)
The Gaels will be headed to the Leavey Center to take on Santa Clara, and what a game I expect this to be on Saturday night. It will be a local 4 PM tipoff in California, and I cannot believe the line setters are leaving us this much room on the handicap offer. St. Mary’s is favoured by -6.5 points and it’s like someone forgot to tell them that the Broncos are pretty damn good this year. It’s almost like people get stuck thinking that if a team is so bad for years that they can’t just suddenly become a top-tier program. I digress because last year the Broncos snuck into the NIT post-season tournament despite losing their opening game to Washington State.
The Broncos hadn’t seen any type of post-season bid in over 20 years until a season ago, and Head Coach Herb Sendek is now in his 6th campaign with Santa Clara. Sendek was constantly getting his programs into the post-season even dating back to his Miami Ohio days in the mid-1990s, although he has won 20 games twice now here with Santa Clara.
Sendek is well on his way to posting another 20-win campaign at 13 – 3, and now that conference play has begun keeping the momentum going will be pivotal and games like these will set bars.
Santa Clara undoubtedly heard they were big underdogs at home tonight, and that is motivation enough for a team that has won 5 straight games. Taking out San Francisco and Boise State already has proven to me that losing this game is not an option tonight, and we have 6.5 points to stuff in our pockets.
This is another reason why rankings can be misleading. I would let Santa Clara shoot 3-point shots all night if they wanted to, and that 112th ranking from behind the arc does nothing to deter me from thinking that way. As you stroll over the Broncos roster, Brandin Podziemski is certainly going to stand out and do his thing tonight.
Podziemski leads the squad with an 18.3 PPG average, but you will also see that Sendek plays his entire roster every night, and they can all shoot from distance. Carlos Stewart is burying 43.9% of his 3-point shots, and then I took notice of the free throw numbers too.
The Broncos convert 72.2% from the charity stripe and their 73.9 PPG only lands them at 150th in the country. The Gaels rank 337th in the nation only making 67% of their free throws, and tight games like these will almost always come down to which team can handle that pressure. Standing on the line when every point matters are huge, and I trust the Broncos to use the home court to their advantage.
Santa Clara Broncos vs Saint Mary’s Gaels Best Bet
Give me all +6.5 of those points for my final play of 2022! I will leave you as I did on Thursday and say might we see an outright upset? Hmm?
- Selection: Santa Clara +6.5
- Best odds: 1.91 (Pinnacle)
- Stakes 4/10
Odds as of 9:00 am December 31, 2022. Odds may now differ.
More Santa Clara Broncos vs Saint Mary’s Gaels Tips
