NCAA Basketball: Picks for Day 2 of the 2024-25 season

Opening night delivered. Plenty of teams took care of their business, and some teams we have some questions about. North Florida beat South Carolina. The Osprey may be very good this year. DePaul got a scare from Southern Indiana, but coach Chris Holtmann got his first win at DePaul. Pat Kelsey got his first win at Louisville, and Mark Pope won at Kentucky. Dusty May got his first win at Michigan. Hopefully, those coaches will get many more this year.

There were some upsets last night. None on the scale of North Florida, but UCF beat Texas A&M, and Ohio State looks much better this year as they beat Texas. Those were both top-25 teams that went down. Gonzaga crushed Baylor and looked very good doing it. This may be one of the more athletic Zags teams we have seen in a long time. Alabama beat UNC Asheville by 56 points. The Crimson Tide are going to be a force for most of the year.

I went 98-18 in my picks yesterday. There are not that many games on this Tuesday given there is an extremely important event happening in the United States today. That is also typical of the day after opening day to be a lighter day on the slate. Picks for Day 2, November 5th, 2024 of the 2024-2025 season are below. Enjoy the hoops.

Rice over FIU

North Texas over Evansville

Texas Tech over Bethune Cookman

Kansas State over New Orleans

Arizona State over Idaho State

BYU over Central Arkansas

San Francisco over Cal Poly

Washington over UC Davis

There is not much on the slate today but that is to be expected given the US Election and the calm after opening night. North Texas and Evansville is the game of the night. Rice and FIU has some potential to be a close game against two teams who likely won’t be very good. Outside of those two games it is a lot of buy games today.