College Basketball Betting Odds & Lines: Back Providence & Cincinnati

There’s just one ranked college basketball team in action on Thursday, and that’s No. 1 Purdue. The Boilermakers are essentially playing a scrimmage against Florida A&M. There are a few good conference matchups, however. Here are two of them with NCAAB picks.

NCAA Basketball Top Betting Games: Back Providence & Cincinnati

Providence at Butler (-2)

Big East game tips at 6:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. The Friars are 10-3 overall and 2-0 in the conference following a wild 103-98 double-overtime win over No. 24 Marquette on Tuesday. PC’s Bryce Hopkins grabbed his 23rd rebound of the game after a missed Friars free throw with 15 seconds left in the second OT to help run out the clock.

“I just try to go get the ball,” said Hopkins who also had 29 points. “That last rebound, it was pretty much just wanting to get the ball. I wanted the game to be over with, obviously.”

Providence shot 1-5 (20.0%) from the field and 1-3 (33.3%) from three but 11-14 (78.6%) from the free throw line in the second overtime. Marquette shot 4-8 (50.0%) from the field, 1-2 (50.0%) from three and 0-1 (0%) from the free throw line in the second OT.

Hopkins’ 20-20 game was the 34th in program history and first since Jamine Peterson when he posted 29 points and 20 rebounds versus Rutgers on Jan. 9, 2010. Hopkins finished with 29 points and 23 boards. The 20-20 game was the first in Big East play since Angel Delgado (21 pts, 20 rbs.) of Seton Hall accomplished the feat on January 22, 2017.

Hopkins’ 23 rebounds tied for the most by a Division I player this season. Devin Carter and Ed Croswell each added 20 points. Five Friars finished in double figures. Three Friars scored 20 or more points for the first time since Nov.16, 2013 vs. Marist. The Friars’ 49 free-throw attempts were the fifth most in program history and the most since January 5, 1999 vs. West Virginia (59).

Butler is 8-5 overall and 0-2 in the Big East after a 78-56 loss at Creighton on Dec. 22. The Bluejays shot 56 percent from the field in the victory. Butler countered by hitting only 42 percent of their attempts, including a 2-for-12 mark from three-point range.

Chuck Harris led the Bulldogs with 14 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Creighton had a 37-19 rebounding advantage. Jalen Thomas, in just his second game for Butler after returning from a pulmonary embolism, scored eight points on 4-for-5 shooting; those were the first points of his Butler career. Butler’s average of 8.2 bench points per game ranks last (of 352 teams) nationally. It is 8-0 this season when leading at halftime but didn’t lead at the half against Creighton.

Providence is 16-5 all-time vs. Butler and took all three games played between the teams last season, but all three contests were single-possession games in the final minute.

Tulane at Cincinnati (-6.5)

AAC game tips at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2. This will be the AAC opener for Tulane (7-4), which concluded its non-conference slate with an 84-63 win over Mississippi Valley State on Dec. 21. Jalen Cook finished just shy of a career high in scoring 27 points. Jaylen Forbes was the only player to finish in the double digits for Tulane, dropping 19 on the night. He added six steals and four rebounds. Tulane won the turnover battle for the 10th time this season, totaling just nine to Mississippi Valley State’s 20.

Cook is averaging 20.2 ppg and 5.3 assists per game over the six contests he has competed in this season. Forbes is right behind him averaging 16.8 ppg and ranks fifth in the conference in points per game. Forbes also leads the conference in free throw percentage at .933.

Tulane ranks second among AAC teams in scoring offense at 78.6 behind Cincinnati, which averages 80.4. As a team they hold the fourth-best field goal percentage at .459 and the best free throw percentage at .800. Tulane also leads the league in assist to turnover ratio at 1.57, the next closest team is Cincinnati at 1.44. The Green Wave went 10-8 in conference play last season, their best record since joining the AAC.

Cincinnati (9-4) finished its non-conference schedule with a 72-52 win over Detroit on Dec. 21. Viktor Lakhin finished with career highs in points (18) and rebounds (15) for his fourth double-double of the season. Those boards also marked the most by a Bearcat since Tre Scott’s 21 on Feb. 20, 2020 against UCF.

UC didn’t attempt a free throw until the 5:29 mark in the second half. However, the Bearcats committed a season-low four turnovers and held Detroit Mercy’s star guard, Antoine Davis, the nation’s active scoring leader and a career 24.6 ppg scorer, to 17 points on 6-of-20 shooting.

The Bearcats’ eight home wins have all been by double-digits for a 20.8 ppg differential. Their seven-game homestand marks the most since the start of the 2013-14 season, its fourth of nine-straight NCAA bids.

These two teams matched up just once last season in Cincinnati where Tulane won 68-60. The Bearcats had won 18 of the previous 20 in the series.