College Basketball Best Bets: Three Favorite Picks for Thursday, January 19

Our college basketball best bets are back, and It's a great slate of college basketball games on Thursday, January 18. We're looking to give you some winning best bets using a combination of key stats and trends, as well as some artificial intelligence from our DimersBOT NCAA basketball predictions. With that said, keep reading so that we can help you narrow down what you should be taking on a great day of NCAA basketball betting. If you want insight into our best bets to win the NCAA National Championship, you can check out our best CBB futures. Today we lock in on games involving the Michigan Wolverines, Maryland Terrapins, Illinois Fighting Illini, Indiana Hoosiers, USC Trojans and Arizona Wildcats.

If you haven't already, you should consider signing up for DraftKings ➡️ here ⬅️ as you can turn a $5 pre-game moneyline bet on any game into $200 in free bonus bets if your team wins. 

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College Basketball Best Bets for Thursday, January 19

Michigan Wolverines vs. Maryland Terrapins - 7:00PM ET

Hunter Dickinson returns to the DMV, where he grew up and infamously was not recruited by the hometown school - Maryland. Dickinson has loudly held a grudge during his college career, and his dominated the Terps along the way. Michigan is 5-0 against Maryland during Dickinson's career with wins by 35, 19, 9, 24 and 13 points in that span. The largest victory of them all came just a few weeks ago when Michigan built a 20+ point lead before Maryland even scored a point.

In the month of January, according to barttorvik.com, Michigan is the 12th best team in the country and Maryland is all the way down at 209th, 100 spots lower than Big Ten cellar dweller Minnesota. Maryland is just 1-6 vs. top 100 teams over the last month and a half. Michigan should win this one outright, but we will take the points.

BET: Michigan +2.5 (-110) at DraftKings Sportsbook

🏀 Michigan vs. Maryland Predictions
📈 Betting preview: Michigan vs. Maryland

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Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Indiana Hoosiers - 8:30PM ET

You have to analyze both of these teams for what they are now, and not what they were a month ago. Illinois' locker room problems have been figured out thanks to a mid-season departure, and the Illini have won four straight games since. On the other side, Indiana has lost two key players to injury and things have fallen off the rails.

All 13 of Illinois' wins this season have come by seven points or more. They are 9-1 at home on the year, and students return to State Farm Arena tonight so we expect it to be jumping. Indiana star Trayce Jackson-Davis is just 5-27 in his career in road games against top 100 opponents. In three games vs. top 19 teams this season, Indiana is 0-3 and has lost the games by an average of 17.6 points per game. Illinois is currently ranked 19th on Kenpom.

BET: Illinois -6 (-110) at DraftKings Sportsbook

🏀 Illinois vs. Indiana Predictions
📈 Betting preview: Illinois vs. Indiana

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USC Trojans vs. Arizona Wildcats - 9:00PM ET

Arizona is one of our favorite teams in the country, but something is broken with the WIldcats right now. In just the month of January, Arizona is playing like the 131st best team in the country, meanwhile USC is up at 39. Arizona has only covered in one of their last seven games, so the numbers back up the eye test.

In that same stretch, USC has covered six of their last seven. They lost by just two points at UCLA a few games ago, and the Bruins are miles better than Arizona right now. USC has the talent to keep this competitive and a knack for making games close.

BET: USC +8 (-110) at DraftKings Sportsbook

Best College Basketball Parlay Today

There are numerous different ways you can wager on College Basketball games in 2023, such as the moneyline, spread, total, player and team props, and, of course, parlays. While we normally suggest taking our picks on their own, we also really love parlays! With that said, check out the fat payout you can get by throwing all of our best bets together tonight. 

🔥 Michigan +2.5
🔥 Illinois -6
🔥 USC +8

*All odds and lines correct at time of publishing