
The major conference tournaments are all underway. We have some crazy matchups in the SEC for the second round of a conference tournament, while the big boys in the Big 12 finally take the court in Kansas City. This is going to be another fun slate! We have 20 games across two slates. Get ready for the second straight day of wall-to-wall basketball! I love March!
We've got some big names and some great matchups today. We'll go through all of those for each slate. We'll give you the core pieces to build a cash or GPP lineup. Then, we'll have some value plays to make it all fit. And for you Ricky Bobby types, we'll give you guys with a great ceiling with a low floor because, "If you ain't first, you're last."
Here are my picks across all CBB DFS slates on Thursday, March 13, with the main slate starting at noon EDT on DraftKings. The late slate starts at 6:30 p.m. EDT. NOTE: Due to the quick turnaround in tournament play, the late slate isn't up on DraftKings yet as of the publishing time. Picks for that section will be filled in early this afternoon.
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Today's Main Slate DraftKings CBB DFS Lineup Picks
Best Matchups:
St. John's vs. Butler
North Carolina wings vs. Wake Forest
Texas guards vs. Texas A&M
Duke guards vs. Georgia Tech
Core Pieces:
Kadary Richmond, St. John's ($9.7K)
Kadary Richmond : 10 points on 5-13 shooting, 12 rebounds, 11 assists & 4 steals in a career-high 42 minutes (1st player in school history to post a triple double since Ron Artest did it back in 1999) pic.twitter.com/Mk3oLFldkJ
— Lee Harvey (@MusikFan4Life) March 9, 2025
That's quite a way to close out the regular season, and it highlights why I keep using Richmond in DFS. He contributes across the board. He's not an elite scorer, but he is an elite defender and a great perimeter rebounder. Richmond has the safest floor on this slate for you cash players.
Baye Ndongo, Georgia Tech ($9.2K)
Ndongo avenged his first game against Virginia with his eighth consecutive game of at least 34 DraftKings points. This is what those of us who watched Ndongo as a freshman expected this season. It just took us most of the year to get here. There's no going back now. Ndongo is one of the elite bigs in college basketball.
D.J. Wagner, Arkansas ($6.4K)
Wagner put up his 11th game of more than 20 DraftKings points in his last 13 games in the win over South Carolina. Wagner scored 11 points in the first meeting against Mississippi, but he had almost no peripheral numbers. That game was with Boogie Fland still in there, so we'll lean toward Wagner getting some counting stats today as well.
Value Pieces:
K.J. Windham, Northwestern ($5.2K)
Windham doesn't have the ceiling of Ty Berry, but he doesn't have his floor, either. Windham has at least 16 DraftKings points in all eight games as a starter for the Wildcats this year. He only played nine minutes in the first game against Wisconsin, so we can't tell too much from that game. I'll trust his recent production and stick with that.
Anthony Leal, Indiana ($4.8K)
The Hoosiers have used a revolving door of big men since Oumar Ballo started playing like a mortal. Leal has at least 15 DraftKings points in five straight and has been over 12 for all but one game in the last month. He has a strong floor but little upside to speak of.
Nate Heise, Iowa State ($4.4K)
Heise has seen a minutes bump since he played well against Houston with both Keshon Gilbert and Curtis Jones out. It's Tamin Lipsey who may miss the game tonight. Heise has at least 12 DraftKings points in seven straight games, with over 20 in five of those games. If Lipsey is out, 20 is a certainty.
Slate-Breaking Potential:
Cooper Flagg, Duke ($10.6K)
Cooper Flagg just wrapped up his regular season with Duke and leads the team in everything ? pic.twitter.com/MdBwVrtXna
— B/R Hoops (@brhoops) March 9, 2025
Flagg's worst game of the season (20 DraftKings points) was in Duke's only meeting with Georgia Tech this year. That was before Christmas. We all know what Flagg has done since Christmas. That floor game may be the warning, but we know what the ceiling is. That makes Flagg a great GPP candidate.
RJ Davis, North Carolina ($7.8K)
Some bracketology professors have North Carolina as one of the last teams in. I don't buy it. They only have one Quad 1 win. They need wins. When their backs are against the wall, that's when Davis gets dangerous.
He has only broken 40 DraftKings points four times this season, but this is arguably the most important game of the season. Davis is either going to come up big or fall flat. There is no in-between.
David Joplin, Marquette ($7.3K)
Joplin has had some big games this year, but he has had some real clunkers as well. He has four straight games with over 26 DraftKings points, including the last three with over 30. In the game before that, he had 5.25 DK points against Villanova. Ouch.
Joplin has 72.25 DraftKings points in 74 minutes against Xavier this year. The Musketeers don't have an answer for Joplin up front, so we should see something close to a ceiling game from him at a very nice price.
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Today's Late Slate DraftKings CBB DFS Lineup Picks
Best Matchups:
Missouri wings vs. Mississippi State
Illinois vs. Iowa
Purdue guards vs. USC
Oklahoma forwards vs. Kentucky
Core Pieces:
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton ($11K)
Ju jitsu moves:
Rj:1
Kalkbrenner:0 pic.twitter.com/9eqKyKq50D— BlueRick (@OmahaIsNebraska) March 12, 2025
This entire city is mad about Kalkbrenner's Big East Player of the Year snub. What's he going to do about it on the court? That's my question. Kalkbrenner hasn't been under 30 DraftKings points since December 18. That's the kind of floor I want when paying top dollar. His 77.75 DK points in 61 minutes against DePaul this year isn't bad either.
Maxime Raynaud, Stanford ($9.6K)
Raynaud is carrying the Tree right now. Stanford is living on borrowed time, it seems. Raynaud had a strong game (41.75 DraftKings points) against Louisville in the regular season finale and Stanford still only scored 48 points and lost by 20. Win or lose, Raynaud is going to have a good game.
Viktor Lakhin, Clemson ($7.9K)
Both teams have a pair of talented bigs. Ian Schieffelin and Matt Cross canceled each other out in the first game Lakhin posted 30 DraftKings points -- the most by any of the four big men on these teams -- in the first meeting against SMU. That propelled him to a streak of five straight games over 30 DK points to close the season.
Jayden Epps, Georgetown ($6.5K)
Epps has turned out to be a good compliment to Micah Peavy. He has at least 20 DraftKings points in each of the last seven games, closing the season with 28.25 against DePaul. Expect another solid game from Epps. He hasn't topped 30 DK points since December, but you know he'll be in the 20s.
Value Pieces:
Jaylen Blakes, Stanford ($5.1K)
You don't usually find high ceilings in value plays, but we may have one with Blakes. He put up 39.75 DraftKings points against Cal yesterday. That was his sixth straight game over 15 DK points. This is the dream: a nice floor with legitimate upside from a value play.
Brock Harding, Iowa ($4.9K)
Harding has at least 20 DraftKings points in six consecutive games and in eight of the last nine. One of those games was against Illinois on February 25. Harding walked away from Champaign with 24.25 DK points in a loss to the Illini. It's absurd that he's this cheap.
Kobe Elvis, Oklahoma ($4.2K)
The Dayton transfer was slow to acclimate to the SEC this year. He closed the season strong, averaging 17.2 DraftKings points over the last five games. He averaged just under 10 in SEC play. Elvis had a solid game against Georgia last night with 13 DK points. Elvis put up 16.5 in the first meeting with Kentucky. It's not setting the world on fire, but we can work with it.
Trey Townsend, Arizona ($4.1K)
Townsend was better at handling Hunter Dickinson than Henry Veesaar was at Allen Fieldhouse last week. He played 26 minutes and put up 26.25 DraftKings points. I would expect a similar approach to Dickinson from Arizona tonight, making Townsend a pretty good value, albeit with some risk.
Slate-Breaking Potential:
Braden Smith, Purdue ($10.6K)
Matt Painter has always recruited substance over style and production over projection
Braden Smith was the 196th ranked recruit in High School and now he’s the Big 10 Player of the Year
JUST KEEP WORKING
(Via @BoilerBall ?)
— Hoop Herald (@TheHoopHerald) March 12, 2025
I'm going with Smith over JT Toppin because Baylor did a good job on Toppin the first time around. Both players can be had by good defenses. Tech is playing one. Purdue is not. This is a massive spot for Smith. He put up 40.75 DraftKings points in the first game against USC despite a poor shooting night. What happens if the shots fall tonight? Exactly!
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas ($10.2K)
Dickinson has been a consistent force lately, but he has the potential for a ceiling game here against Arizona. That's why he's in this section. Kalkbrenner's floor is a little better. Dickinson has back-to-back games over 50 DraftKings points. One of those was in the regular season finale against Arizona (50.5 DK points).
Otega Oweh, Kentucky ($8.7K)
Oweh stuck it to his former team in his former arena back on February 26. Oweh scored 40 DraftKings points on the Sooners in his return to Norman in a game that Oklahoma desperately needed to win. The Sooners got one of those last night. Even if they get one more, Oweh is likely to have a good game. Beware that floor, though. It's like playing Pitfall on Atari.
Jaeden Zackery, Clemson ($7.3K)
With all those big men beating each other up, you know that at least one of the guards had to come through. In the first meeting, that was Zackery. He lit up the Ponies in Moody Coliseum for 53 DraftKings points in his best all-around performance of the season. I wouldn't expect a repeat, but we could see Zackery flirt with 40. I'll take that for the price.