2021-22 Conference USA Basketball Preview
Conference USA Basketball Preseason Predictions
WagerTalk college basketball handicapper Adam Trigger offers his thoughts on the upcoming 2021-22 Conference USA Basketball season. Which teams are being underrated by the betting market? Which teams should you stay away from? Check out Adam’s Conference USA Basketball betting preview.
The 2021-22 college basketball season tips off on Tuesday, November 9th, and Adam Trigger wants to introduce himself with a big discount! For a limited time, you can get the opening seven days of the college hoops season for ONLY $39, giving you access to ANY college basketball selections played during opening week, including ANY 5% Best Bets on the hardwood! Stay on top of the latest College Basketball updates direct from Las Vegas!
Conference USA Basketball Betting Preview
We are still knocking out the conferences in the middle of the country though this one spans from South Florida all the way out to West Texas in the albatross known as Conference USA. I absolutely love this conference, I play a ton of Conference USA action year in and year out and am excited about an extremely deep Conference USA this season. So many of these teams are so close right now that I’m actually finding it difficult singling out teams that will be “bet on” vs “bet against” because I have a feeling that’s going to change on a weekly basis for me in Conference USA this season. Still, there are some worth highlighting so lets get to it.
Conference USA Basketball ‘BET ON’ Teams
North Texas Mean Green – North Texas is a “bet on” team that I absolutely nailed last season and I’m coming right back with the Mean Green as a “bet on” team again this year. The reason for that is head coach Grant McCasland as I’ve been singing McCasland’s praises as a stud coach since he arrived in Denton in 2017. I cashed every step of the way with North Texas as they rattled off our wins in four days to steal the auto bid last March and again when the Mean Green upset Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. I thought that run might have North Texas overrated this season but that’s not the case at all as Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky and UAB all seem to be getting considerably more hype than North Texas coming into the season. North Texas star everything player Javion Hamlet is gone but McCasland landed some studs in the transfer market. I would probably back McCasland with a group of guys he found on the playground but this North Texas team still has a ton of talent and will likely overachieve again this year.
North Texas doesn’t have a ton of scoring back but the name of the game once again for the Mean Green will be defense and tempo (or lack thereof). North Texas plays as slow and deliberate as any team in the country, this limits possessions and McCasland has a knack for making those limited possessions count. One of the transfers comes from the JUCO ranks but is one of the top JUCO players in the country in point guard Tylor Perry. He will start along side Mardrez McBride and Rubin Jones, holdovers from last year’s NCAA Tournament team, to give North Texas a solid three guard backcourt. Fifth year senior Thomas Bell is the leading returning scorer though the more impactful front court player will likely be Washington transfer Hameir Wright who should thrive in a slight drop in competition level from the PAC 12 to Conference USA. McCasland has always been able to do more with less, I have no issues with the roster McCasland has assembled this season and I expect North Texas to be a nightmare for up-tempo teams to play against and an overachiever yet again this season.
UTEP Miners – There’s so many good teams in Conference USA this year that it’s going to give the “middle of the pack” teams a chance to rise from obscurity and I think the most likely team to make that leap is UTEP. Tremendous head coaching hire here as UTEP replaces Rodney Terry (who left to be an assistant at Texas under Chris Beard) with former Abilene Christian head coach Joe Golding. I love this hire for UTEP, Golding took Abilene Christian from D2 to beating Texas in the NCAA Tournament so I fully expect him to be able to compete with a capable roster in Conference USA. Remember, Terry wasn’t fired, he left, and he left a team that improved from 3-15 in CUSA in his first year in 2018-19 to a respectable 8-8 last season. Naturally a couple of the guys from last year’s team transferred out but UTEP will start four players that were in El Paso last season and Georgetown transfer Jamari Sibley.
The top returning player for UTEP is Souley Boum who also happens to be one of the best guards in the league. Boum averaged 18.8 points per game for UTEP last season, he’s an elite perimeter defender which is perfect for Golding’s high intensity defense. UTEP has 6-7 really good players, behind them there isn’t a ton of depth but if there was we would probably be talking about UTEP as a top team in this league not middle of the pack. Much like North Texas, I’m willing to “bet on” Golding here more than I’m betting on the actual players he has on the floor. Golding probably deserved a power conference job for what he did in Abilene, UTEP will benefit greatly from him landing in El Paso and if the Miners can stay healthy they can be a beast against the number this season.
Conference USA Basketball ‘BET AGAINST’ Team
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders – So many of these Conference USA teams are either really good or have upside that I had to go all the way to the bottom of the conference to find a “bet against” team entering the season. Middle Tennessee State being bad this season isn’t groundbreaking info as the Blue Raiders will be at the bottom of most preseason Conference USA projections, it’s how bad MTSU is that creates some value (most likely laying) the number to bet against them.
There’s still some name recognition here as it was only a few years ago Middle Tennessee State upset Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament and followed it up by winning Conference USA with a 16-2 record and getting snubbed from the NCAA Tournament (went to the NIT) the following year. That was the year Kermit Davis left to take the Ole Miss job and since it’s been Nick McDevitt who had a good run at UNC Asheville but has been a disaster in Murfreesboro. Middle Tennessee State has gotten progressively worse each year under McDevitt and he will rely heavily on Green Bay transfer Josh Jefferson to make MTSU respectable this year. Jefferson was a nice player at Green Bay but C-USA is a lot better than the Horizon and I don’t see Jefferson thriving with the group of misfits he will be surrounded by here. Jalen Jordan can play, which makes the Jefferson/Jordan backcourt tandem serviceable, but there’s just no one else on this Middle Tennessee roster that’s very good. Middle Tennessee State doesn’t have a single legitimate scoring option in the frontcourt returning so it’s going to be up to three JUCO transfers and a freshman to break into the Middle Tennessee State lineup and be an unsung hero for this Blue Raiders team. I just don’t see it, I fully expect MTSU to finish last in this conference but I don’t think the oddsmakers (at least at first) will have MTSU power rated as low as they should be. MTSU is a horrendous team, I don’t see where the wins come from for the Blue Raiders in CUSA play and as long as the numbers stay reasonable I expect MTSU to be a profitable fade.
Other College Basketball Conference Previews
West Coast Conference Preview
WAC Conference Preview
Big Sky Preview
Mountain West Conference Preview
Pac-12 Conference Preview
Big West Conference Preview
Summit League Preview
Big XII Conference Preview
Missouri Valley Conference Preview
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— Adam Trigger (@TopFlightSI) October 21, 2021
College Basketball Betting Basics
College basketball totals can be one of the most frustrating, yet rewarding, things to handicap in the sports betting sphere. WagerTalk’s Kelly Stewart and Drew Martin help you navigate the finer points of how to handicap college basketball totals. In this round of college basketball betting tips, Drew and Kelly break down five key factors for betting college basketball, including pace of play, changes in tempo and efficiency stats.
2021-22 NCAA Basketball National Championship Odds
The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has just released their updated 2021-22 NCAA Basketball National Championship odds, and Gonzaga remains the 6-to-1 favorite, followed by Texas (10-to-1), Kansas (12-to-1) and UCLA (12-to-1). Once the season tips off, WagerTalk’s live odds screen will feature up-to-the-minute betting lines from a variety of offshore and domestic sports books.
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