College Basketball Betting: Auburn Tigers vs. Kentucky Wildcats



Kentucky has seized the moment and can wrap up the SEC regular-season title with a victory over visiting Auburn on CBS at 3:45 EST Saturday.

At the beginning of February, it looked like Auburn or LSU was poised to win the SEC basketball title this season. However, they ran into rough spots and Kentucky started surging.

Free College Basketball Preview, Odds and Pick for Auburn vs Kentucky

The Wildcats have Big Blue nation smiling again, poised to win another SEC regular-season crown. Kentucky has rattled off seven straight victories (6-1 ATS) and is playing its best basketball of the season.

This is a little different squad for John Calipari. Of his top four scorers, only Tyrese Maxey is a freshman.

Kentucky Wildcats Free pickInstead, this ‘Cats club has a leader and an anchor. The leader is guard Immanuel Quickley, who is Kentucky’s leading scorer at 16.9 PPG and he chips in four rebounds. Quickley is aptly named, with great quickness and he can certainly get to the rim quickly off a ball screen to score or dish.

The anchor is center Nate Richards, whose presence in the lane on both sides of the floor is part disruptor and part finisher. At home, Kentucky is 15-1 (7-9 ATS), winning by 13.4 PPG.

The college basketball odds have Kentucky favored by -6.5 points.

Tigers    +6.5 points -110
Wildcats -6.5 points -110

Auburn is the last team to knock off the Wildcats, doing so exactly four weeks ago at home, winning 75-66, as 2.5-point favorites. The Tigers have lost their last two away games, at Missouri and at Georgia and they’ve lived on the edge for their backers.

After losing four in a row against the spread, Bruce Pearl’s team had a pair of half-point covers against Tennessee and Ole Miss in recent outings.

Auburn Kentucky Free PickThis Auburn squad is not as talented as last year’s, nonetheless, they have one similar trait, they can heat up in an instant when it comes to shooting and go on 10-0 runs in 60 seconds.

Seniors Samir Doughty, J'Von McCormick and Austin Wiley are all excellent players and all show tremendous leadership. However, what makes the Tigers a threat in this contest and in the SEC tournament in a couple of weeks is freshman Isaac Okoro, being a difference-maker.

Because of Auburn’s veteran leadership, they are capable of hanging within the number for college basketball picks. Nevertheless, we see similarities to the last meeting between these rivals.

This time Kentucky leads most of the second half by two to five points and those shots that dropped for the Tigers in the last outing, don’t in Lexington and Big Blue pull further ahead in the last few minutes at the free throw line for the win and cover.

Doug Upstone’s Free Pick – Kentucky -6.5  (Visit Doc’s Sports for more expert college basketball picks)


Doug Upstone is a top sports analyst for Doc's Sports and one of the sports industry's most respected handicappers. Find more from Doug and other top handicappers at DocSports.com


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