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Get ready for an amped-up week of college basketball! The NCAA Tournament play-in games start tonight and so does the NIT! That gives us a 10-game slate for each of the next two nights. All of the NIT games will be at the higher-seeded team's gym. The First Four is in Dayton as it is every year.
Howard and Wagner tip off the NCAA Tournament. The first leg of the NIT games features North Texas in Red Stick, Boston College heading to Providence, Xavier in Athens to face Georgia, and Cornell heading to Columbus to face the Buckeyes. The other NCAA Tournament game is between Virginia and Colorado State. The last leg of the NIT sees Richmond head to Blacksburg, Minnesota heads to Indy to take on Butler, It's the War on I-4 between Central Florida and South Florida from Orlando. We close this out in Iowa City with Kansas State in town.
This article will provide you with my daily fantasy college basketball lineup picks on DraftKings on 3/19/24, starting at 6:40 p.m. EDT. I’ll provide multiple player suggestions at guard and forward, aiming to highlight one option at the salary scale's high, middle, and lower levels. Good luck, RotoBallers.
Today's DraftKings Guards - CBB DFS Lineup Picks
Sean Pedulla, Virginia Tech ($8.8K)
Pedulla closed the season with six straight games over 32 DraftKings points. He's the best shooter on this team but also dishes out plenty of assists. Richmond is a good defensive team, but they haven't faced a player like Pedulla this year. His ceiling is somewhere in the 50s, but his floor is a little lower than I like for pay-up options.
Bruce Thornton, Ohio State ($7.6K)
Thornton fueled the run in Minneapolis that landed the Buckeyes in the NIT. He had huge games against Iowa and Illinois. This was a different Buckeyes team after Chris Holtmann was fired. Jake Diebler coached this team to a 5-2 record down the stretch with wins over Purdue and Michigan State. Thornton had disappeared under Holtmann. He is averaging 33.3 DraftKings points per game with Diebler at the helm.
Claudell Harris Jr., Boston College ($6.5K)
Harris started the last 12 games of the season for the Eagles, averaging 24.4 DraftKings points per game over that span. That average jumps to 30.5 over the last five games of the season. The Eagles won't have to deal with Devin Carter tonight, so it's a much more favorable matchup for the BC guards. Considering how well Harris is playing anyway, he should be able to keep up that average at the very least.
Ticket Gaines, Providence ($5.2K)
Who is that masked man?
Ticket Gaines hits from behind the arc?
?️ @TheRealTick3t pic.twitter.com/AETgcyWJs5
— Providence MBB (@PCFriarsmbb) March 13, 2024
Providence is going to have to rely on Ticket for scoring with Devin Carter out. Whether he can do it or not is a hot-button topic in Providence. Gaines scored just two points in 39 minutes against Marquette and didn't make any of his nine shot attempts from the floor. His season-high in scoring was 18 points against Marquette on December 19. That said, he has never been the focal point of the offense before. Maybe it will suit him. For this price, it's worth finding out.
Also consider: Reece Beekman, Virginia ($9.3K); Darius Johnson, Central Florida ($8.5K); Nique Clifford, Colorado State ($8.1K); Bryce Harris, Howard ($7.3K); Elijah Hawkins, Minnesota ($6.8K); Jason Edwards, North Texas ($6.6K); Josh Dix, Iowa ($6.3K); Jaeden Zackery, Boston College ($6K); Jordan Hairston, Howard ($5.5K); Marcus Dockery, Howard ($5.2K); Joe Palmer, Colorado State ($4.5K); Scotty Middleton, Ohio State ($4.2K); Javier Ezquerra, Wagner ($3.9K)
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Today's DraftKings Forwards - CBB DFS Lineup Picks
Payton Sandfort, Iowa ($8.7K)
Sandfort has at least 35 DraftKings points in four straight, and at least 27 DraftKings points in nine consecutive games. He led the charge to the postseason for Iowa. This team was dead in the water at the end of January. He has done it against the strong post defenses of Ohio State, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan State. K-State doesn't scare me.
Arthur Kaluma, Kansas State ($7.2K)
The Creighton transfer has had an up-and-down season, but the matchup doesn't get much better than this. Iowa has size, but they don't defend well in the middle. Kaluma has at least 20 DraftKings points in every game since the beginning of February. What is really intriguing is the 50 DraftKings points that he laid on BYU in that span. There is a high ceiling here.
Tyler Nickel, Virginia Tech ($5.3K)
Nickel scored 46 points over the last three games of the season. He is a streaky shooter, so the six days off might interfere with the hot streak. I'm hoping not. Getting 20 DraftKings points at this price can really do wonders for our lineups.
Lazar Djokovic, Xavier ($4.4K)
Djokovic started the last three games for the Musketeers and averaged a solid 16.3 DraftKings points per game. Not bad for a value pick! The Kachi Nzeh experiment seems to be over since Djokovic is solid, yet unspectacular. I can work with that at this price.
Also consider: Quinten Post, Boston College ($9.1K); Josh Oduro, Providence ($8.4K); Kasean Pryor, South Florida ($8K); Joel Scott, Colorado State ($7.7K); Seth Towns, Howard ($6.8K); Felix Okpara, Ohio State ($5.8K); Hunter Dean, LSU ($5.2K); Abou Ousmane, Xavier ($4.9K); Devin Royal, Ohio State ($4.3K)
