NCAA Basketball: Best bets to make for week 2 of 2020-21 season
#11 West Virginia vs #1 Gonzaga in Indianapolis – 6 pm ET
Derek Culver (15.0 Pts, 10.0 Reb, 2.0 Ast) and Oscar Tshiebwe (7.7 Pts, 8.7 Reb, 0.0 Ast) are grown men for the Mountaineers and are potentially the best frontcourt in the country, but the Zags look to be a different animal right now. \The frontline of Drew Timme (26.5 pts, 8 reb) and Corey Kispert (24 pts, 5 reb) put up ridiculous numbers in two relatively comfortable wins in Fort Myers over power conference opponents and freshman Jalen Suggs (18.0 Pts, 4.0 Reb, 7.0 Ast) was even better than I thought.
While impressive in winning the Bad Boy Mowers tournament, the Mountaineers let all three of its opponents (South Dakota State, VCU, and WKU) hang around and stay within striking distance until late in games. None of those teams had even close to the weapons of Gonzaga.
We don’t know the spread yet on this one, but I predict that Gonzaga wins by low double digits.
{Pick} Gonzaga by 13 over West Virginia
#5 Illinois vs #2 Baylor in Indianapolis – 9 pm ET
The Illini survived a barn burner against Ohio after two blowout wins and Baylor was excellent in its opening win over Louisiana and even better versus power opponent Washington.
I don’t put too much stock in the close win by Illinois as Jason Preston had his coming out party for the Bobcats putting up 31 points, eight assists, and six boards. Ayo Dosunmu (25.7 Pts, 7.7 Reb, 6.7 Ast) looks great and this is clearly the best Illinois team since the Final Four squad in 2005.
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Even with that, the Bears are the team to beat in this one, stacked with an upperclassmen group that features four guards that score more than 12 points a game thus far. They also have an elite defender in Mark Vital to stick to Dosunmu. This is a two-way squad that gets it done on both ends and while I love the Illini, Baylor’s combination of depth and experience is too much at this juncture in the season for Illinois. It will be a good one, though.
{Pick} Baylor by 3 over Illinois