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This is the first Saturday that hoops is all by itself and they are taking full advantage of it. We have three monster slates on tap for today, with almost all of them exclusively Power Six matchups. College basketball will own the space until the end of March. It all starts here! We will focus on the main slate here. I will have the other slates written up separately. DraftKings gives us 33 games on three slates. Let's have some fun today! All 12 of these games take place between noon and 2 PM. How great is that?
The SEC games feature Georgia in Columbia to take on Missouri. The Bulldogs are in the other Columbia to take on the Gamecocks. Kentucky is in the Swamp to take on the Gators. We also have Auburn in Fayetteville to take on the Hogs. The Big East gives us the Johnnies in Philly to take on Villanova. Marquette is in Jersey to take on Seton Hall. Providence is in Omaha at the Birdcage taking on Creighton. The Big Ten only gives us Rutgers in Iowa City on this slate, but we can work with that. The ACC gives us North Carolina in Clemson and Virginia in Raleigh. The Big 12 gives us two to close this out with Houston hosting West Virginia and TCU at the Phog.
In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy college basketball lineup picks for DraftKings on 1/6/24, starting at noon Eastern. I’ll provide multiple player suggestions at guard and forward, aiming to highlight one option at the high, middle, and lower end of the salary scale. Good luck, RotoBallers.
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Today's DraftKings Guards - CBB DFS Lineup Picks
Baylor Scheierman, Creighton ($8,400)
Scheierman is one of the most consistent players at the college level, which makes him an ideal cash play on any slate. He has at least 29 DraftKings points in every game this season and has been over 30 for each of the last eight games. He may not have the ceiling of some of the guys in front of him, but the money saved with Scheierman will help get a couple of higher-upside players in the middle tier.
Raequan Battle, West Virginia ($7,900)
The transfer from Montana State has transformed the Mountaineers in his three games with the team. Battle has been an elite scorer, putting up 82 points in just three games, but he has also tallied 19 rebounds, eight steals, and two assists. This game against Houston will mark the biggest test in Battle's career, but the early indicators are that he will be up for it. The Mountaineers need the offense, so they don't care if he shoots 20 times a game. I love the volume potential for this price.
Derek Simpson, Rutgers ($6,000)
Simpson has been on fire lately with at least 23 DraftKings points in four straight games, including 71 over the last two games. There's no reason for him to be this cheap. Even if Simpson's shot isn't falling, he stacks peripherals to give him a higher floor than most value plays. Simpson's best game of the season came in the Big Ten opener against Ohio State. He's getting hot at the right time.
Keyon Menifield Jr., Arkansas ($4,600)
The court ruling allowing multi-time transfers to jump in immediately with their new teams has altered college basketball in the last couple of weeks (for the better). In some cases, like the case of Menifield, it has taken some time for the new players to figure out their roles for their new teams. Menifield scored 32 points and added four rebounds and five assists against UNC-Wilmington to close out 2023. 2024 could be a huge year for Menifield. He feels severely underpriced here.
Also consider: Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas ($9,200); Tyler Kolek, Marquette ($8,600); Joseph Girard III, Clemson ($7,800); Tony Perkins, Iowa ($7,300); Chase Hunter, Clemson ($6,300); Emanuel Sharp, Houston ($6,000); Hakim Hart, Villanova ($5,600); Trevian Tennyson, TCU ($5,300); Shakeel Moore, Mississippi State ($4,800); Stevie Mitchell, Marquette ($4,300)
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Today's DraftKings Forwards - CBB DFS Lineup Picks
Johni Broome, Auburn ($8,700)
Auburn's tough early schedule hurt the stats of Broome, but he got back on track against Penn, Chattanooga, and Alcorn State. That really doesn't tell us anything about the matchup with Arkansas, but we can't underestimate what those three games did for Broome's confidence. He really struggled against USC in the middle of December and had trouble getting shots in the flow of the offense before that game. Confidence is important in young players and we know what Broome can do. Just go watch the tape of that game against Virginia Tech at the end of November. He can dominate when things are going right.
Tolu Smith, Mississippi State ($8,000)
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Smith is Mississippi State's missing link. Smith finally made his season debut on New Year's Eve and put up 16 points with nine rebounds. Not bad, right? Well, that was in just 19 minutes in the Bulldogs' blowout win. Smith didn't look rusty at all. He looked like he did in March when we last saw him in a live game. Smith looked like he could have played 30 minutes if the Bulldogs needed him to. I expect the minutes to be back up today. He has immense potential, even at the elevated price.
Micah Handlogten, Florida ($5,600)
Handlogten often finds himself on the bench in foul trouble, but when he's on the court, he's a difference-maker. Handlogten has 39 rebounds in 106 minutes over the last five games and 15 fouls. He's not an elite scorer and isn't great at rim protection, but he is good enough in both areas to give him a nice floor. We haven't seen Handlogten play more than 26 minutes in a game this year, but in those games where he played 26 minutes, he put up 60 DraftKings points.
Jalen Graham, Arkansas ($3,900)
Graham played 27 minutes against UNC-Wilmington, a sign that his bench role might be expanding. Arkansas just played three supposedly inferior opponents, but they won the games by a combined 29 points. That's close enough for the rotations to remain what they would be in a normal game. Graham's good showing against Oklahoma at the beginning of December served as a springboard for four straight double-digit DraftKings point games. I trust his uptick in minutes, meaning Graham is a solid value play today.
Also consider: Hunter Dickinson, Kansas ($9,500); Armando Bacot, North Carolina ($8,300); Tyrese Samuel, Florida ($7,700); Quinn Slazinski, West Virginia ($7,200); Owen Freeman, Iowa ($6,900); Aundre Hyatt, Rutgers ($6,400); David Joplin, Marquette ($5,600); Ben Middlebrooks, North Carolina State ($4,300)
