NCAA Basketball: Picks for Day 61 of 2024-25 season featuring Florida vs Tennessee

There were only 16 games on Monday; of those 16 games, only three were power conference schools. The results of those games turned out as expected, without much intrigue. Wisconsin traveled to New Jersey and beat Rutgers. The Badgers, coming off a 116-point, 21 three-point performance against Iowa, expected some regression. They didn’t shoot the ball nearly as well, but they did enough to beat Rutgers. The Badgers held Rutgers star Ace Bailey to 3 points. Scarlet Knights superstar Dylan Harper is still recovering from a bout with the flu and only played 9 minutes and didn’t score.

The Big Ten had one more game on Monday night when Ohio State traveled to Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Neither team is great, and that is what happened in this game. Ohio State needed two overtime and two comebacks to beat a bad Minnesota team. The Buckeyes were playing porous defense all night long, couldn’t rebound, and couldn’t make a three. Ohio State ended up winning the game at the free throw line. Minnesota did make some threes last night but shot 12-27 from the free throw line and star Dawson Garcia fouled out well before overtime. The Gophers are going to struggle to find a win in the league.

Finally, the last power conference game saw Houston against TCU. The game went about as you would expect. The Cougars were awesome on the defensive end again, slowed the game way down, and made a bunch of threes. That is Houston basketball under Kelvin Sampson. TCU was overwhelmed from the start of the game, committed 19 turnovers and had a horrible time even getting a shot off most of the night. The Horned Frogs are in a rebuilding year, but most teams wouldn’t beat Houston on their floor.

There is going to be some great Basketball today. The Big East, Big Ten, ACC, SEC, and the Big 12 all have huge conference games. The MAC, American, Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, Mountain West, and the WCC are also in action. There is a very good possibility that there will be zero undefeated teams left after today. In fact, the top two teams in the country could lose today. Chaos could be the theme of the day and I am here for it. Picks for day 61 January 7, 2025, are below.

Where do you begin with that schedule of games? Let’s start with a game in each time slot. The first one is Tennessee and Florida. The Volunteers head to Gainesville with their perfect record and top defense on the line. The Gators are a team who is going to test the meddle to Tennessee and their defense. Florida will play as fast as possible and do it better than any other team in the country. The Volunteers are built to play slow, grind-it-out games where they use their defense to generate transition baskets. The Gator's style of play on their home floor could spell doom for the Vols.

The next set of games takes us to Iowa City. Iowa hosts Nebraska in another game of contrasting styles. The Hawkeyes are one of the most prolific offenses in the country, and they take and make a lot of threes. The problem with Iowa is their defense is downright awful. Nebraska is a great defensive squad that is okay on the offensive end. The Huskers love to pack the paint and give up about 30 threes a night. That plays right into the hands of Iowa. The Hawkeyes are looking to prove themselves again after getting blasted by Wisconsin the last time out.

Let’s move to the last game of the night in Westwood. UCLA hosts Michigan. The Bruins are coming off a tough loss in Lincoln where they couldn’t make a shot or free throw and got out-toughed by Nebraska. Head coach Mick Cronin personally called out point guard Dylan Andrews and said he must play better. Michigan has two seven-footers that start and play most of the game. They put pressure on everyone’s frontcourt. I do think UCLA is very good, and they are at home, but they are going to have to score points to beat Michigan. Enjoy the hoops.