DraftKings College Basketball: Saturday Value Picks

DraftKings College Basketball: Saturday Value Picks

This article is part of our DraftKings College Basketball series.

Welcome to another Saturday of college basketball at DraftKings. Your total available salary is $50,000 to build your best squad of eight players, which includes three guards, three forwards and two FLEX. Points are awarded on DraftKings as follows: 



Point = +1 point PT

Made 3pt. shot = +0.5 PTs

Rebound = +1.25 PTs

Assist = +1.5 PTs

Double-Double = +1.5 PTs

Triple-Double= +3 PTs



With that out of the way, here are the available GPP contests for college basketball this Saturday:



$12 Full Court Press ($1,200 first prize), Entry Fee: $20
$10K Triple Threat ($3,000 first prize), Entry Fee: $300
$7.5K Buzzer Beater ($600 first prize), Entry Fee: $2
$4.5K Full Court Press ($500 first prize), Entry Fee: $2
and many more…



Check out the multiple March Mania Qualifiers. There are contests with entry fees of $200, $20 and $2 with the winner of each receiving a ticket to the $100K March Mania Head-to-Head Bracket Challenge to take place during the NCAA tournament. You must win one of the sixty-four qualifiers to gain entry into the contest.

There are three sets of contest times with included games: 



12pm – 3pm Eastern

Georgia Tech at North Carolina
Minnesota at Wisconsin
Oklahoma at Texas Tech
Pittsburgh at Syracuse
Seton Hall at St. John's
Texas A&M at South Carolina
Kansas State at Baylor
Florida at LSU
Butler at Xavier
Iowa State at Texas
Miami at Louisville
West Virginia at Oklahoma State
Missouri at Vanderbilt
Villanova at Marquette
Penn State at Northwestern

4pm-6pm
Notre Dame at Boston College
Clemson at Duke
TCU at Kansas
Arkansas at Mississippi State
Virginia Tech at North Carolina State

7pm-11pm
Auburn at Kentucky
Tennessee at Ole Miss
DePaul at Georgetown
Georgia at Alabama
UCLA at Arizona
Cincinnati at Houston
Gonzaga at Saint Mary's
Colorado at Oregon State

We are less than a month from the Big Dance. Some teams are trending up into tournament bids and high seeds, others are falling apart, dropping seeds and dropping to the wrong side of the bubble. Saturday offers, as usual, a litany of games and players. Staying with teams in good straights, and playing in games that promise higher point totals is a key to success. Here are players falling within those categories.

Guards:

Josh Heath/Tadric Jackson, Georgia Tech, $3,300/$3,100
Georgia Tech has suspended starting guard Chris Bolden until the conference tournament. Filling in his place, in an already weak backcourt, are Heath and Jackson. Both got over 20 minutes against the slow-paced Clemson Tigers last time out, and they look poised to put up good production against the running-gunning Tar Heels. Heath was clearly the better performer of the two in the Clemson game, but Jackson got five more minutes and could have the more upside.

Cameron Wright, Pittsburgh, $4,800
Wright was a large component of the Panthers dismantling of the Tar Heels last weekend, putting up a double-double and 35.25 FTPs. His dull performance last time out against Virginia can be forgiven; the Cavaliers are the best defense in the nation, and the Syracuse Orange are not.

Kasey Hill, Florida, $5,400
Hill is a near guarantee to get over 30 minutes per game with the injury to Michael Frazier II. He's shot the ball very poorly in his last two outings, but he did go 4-for-9 from the field the last time the Gators faced LSU. Running the point, Hill is the Gators' assist leader, a fact that doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon. He has the potential to put up respectable stats in every scoring category.

Dee Davis, Xavier, $6,600
Davis pretty much stays on the court for the entirety of Xavier's games. He's among the country's leaders in assists with a line of 8-9-5-15-9 over his last five outings. He has his nights scoring the ball too, as he put up 16 on crosstown rival Cincinnati's stagnating defense. Butler is a tough opponent, but they don't play defense quite as stifling as Cincinnati. Anything near his 34.25-FPT performance against the Bearcats makes Davis a prime target.

Olivier Hanlan, Boston College, $9,400
Holy boloney this kid can score. He put up 28 against Notre Dame five games ago and that just happens to be his second-lowest point performance over the last five games, scoring 28-30-16-32-32 over that span. Hanlan has a very high floor and a ceiling in the stratosphere.

Anthony Barber, North Carolina State, $6,500
Anthony "Cat" Barber has stepped up and taken a huge role as his Wolfpack fight for a spot in the Big Dance. A huge win over Louisville during the week highlighted a 30-FPT performance. He had 41 fantasy points three games ago and 39.25 the game before that. Forgiving the Virginia game, Barber has been a scoring force of late. Nothing about the Virginia Tech defense is likely to stop that.

Malcolm Duvivier, Oregon State, $5,500
The late games are a little lacking in the guard department, but the last game of the night features the slow-going Beavers. Never take a player against the Beaver defense, but Duvivier plays the entirety of most of the Beavers' games, usually putting up double-digit points along with a few rebounds and assists. He put a very healthy 24.75 FPT total on defensive stalwart Utah last time out.

Forwards:

Devin Williams, West Virginia, $5,700
Don't mind Williams's recent mediocre scoring totals. He has been the unlucky victim of little injuries and foul trouble. The guy put up 41.75 FPTs against Baylor, he has huge upside and gets an Oklahoma State squad that is lacking in premier paint presences.

Myles Turner, Texas, $6,700
All of the Diaper Dandy big men appear to finally be settling into their great talent. Turner is averaging 21 points and 11 rebounds over his last two outings. Iowa State has some good inside presences in recent-revelation Jameel McKay, and while Texas will need to score some points to stay with the Cyclones, Turner appears to have finally solidified his place as their premier player.

Daniel Ochefu, Villanova, $6,400
Ochefu has his productive games and his non-productive games. In this matchup, with the undersized Golden Eagles, he seems a shoe-in to get lots of rebounds; it his scoring ability that his value hinges on. In a nice development, he has at least three assists in three of his last four games. If you question Ochefu, teammate JayVaughn Pinkston ($5,100) is more consistent with his scoring and pulled down seven rebounds in Villanova's last matchup with Marquette.

Chris Obekpa, St. John's, $3,900
Recent developments have been a detriment to Obekpa's value. After a suspension and tweaking his ankle, and only getting 13 minutes against Georgetown, Obekpa is the cheapest price he's been all season. St. John's hosts Seton Hall, who has problems of their own, but do have some inside threats that should lead Obekpa getting back to the 30 or so minutes he was getting before being ejected for elbowing a Butler player in the back of the head.

Robert Sampson, Georgia Tech, $3,900
Sampson is averaging 25 minutes over his last two, and against the size of North Carolina, those minutes are expected to continue. He is a premier rebounder, with 10 in his last game. With enough minutes, some of those offensive rebounds should turn into points. At this cheap of a price, and on a team losing a starter to suspension, Sampson has the opportunity to provide great value.

Gavin Ware, Mississippi State, $5,500
Arkansas's running, high-scoring style promotes games with lots of points. Ware has been a consistent provider for Mississippi, often putting up double-digit points and double-digit rebounds. He picked up 27.25 FPTs last time out versus Arkansas and put up a monstrous 40.25 FPTs against Auburn back in January. $5,500 looks a bargain if there ever was one.

Abdul-Malik Abu/Beejay Anya, North Carolina State, $4,700/$3,400
Virginia Tech is a very small team. Whoever mans the post for NC State will get lots of rebounds, but who that is has been questionable lately. Abu is presumably the most-likely candidate, but Anya got more minutes in the last game. There is always the chance the Wolfpack just go with a small lineup to match what Virginia Tech puts forth, though exploiting their lack of size makes more sense. Trying to follow any developments on who is most-favored to get playing time should signal who is the best use of the two.

Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky, $5,500
Cauley-Stein is the most consistent thing Kentucky has this season. The team is too good for its own good in terms of fantasy usage, but against the lackadaisical Auburn defense, I find it advisable to use somebody from the Wildcat squad. Cauley-Stein always gets his minutes, and is consistent in both the points and rebounds departments. His upside appears limited by the talent of his teammates, but he still is as good a target has Kentucky provides. Karl-Anthony Towns has more upside, but a much lower floor than Cauley-Stein.

Armani Moore, Tennessee, $6,500
Tennessee is running under the radar this season. They aren't premier, but they are solid and get an opportunity to put up some higher-than-typical point totals on the high-scoring Ole Miss Rebels. Moore is the most talented forward in the game, with a high ceiling and a good bet to flirt with double-double status.

L.J. Peak, Georgetown, $4,300
Isaac Copeland has established himself as a starter for the Hoyas, and now fellow-freshman Peak is seeing starter-type minutes. The matchup with DePaul is an extremely favorable one, and I look for the talented freshman to get his share of what should be a healthy scoring game.

Kaleb Tarczewski, Arizona, $4,900
Confidence in tow, Tarczewski looks to be out of his funk and playing to his very high potential. His minutes will hover in the mid-20s with the depth of the Wildcats, but he's averaging 16 points and 6.5 rebounds over his last two outings. He's the only true big man presence down low for the Wildcats and will have a good opportunity to continue his recent surge in form against a UCLA Bruins team fighting for an NCAA tournament berth.

The author(s) of this article may play in daily fantasy contests including – but not limited to – games that they have provided recommendations or advice on in this article. In the course of playing in these games using their personal accounts, it's possible that they will use players in their lineups or other strategies that differ from the recommendations they have provided above. The recommendations in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of RotoWire. Alex Spalding plays in daily fantasy contests using the following accounts: FanDuel: ajump08, DraftKings: ajump08.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alex Spalding
Alex splits his expertise between College Basketball, NBA, NFL, MLB, and Saturday morning BPL. You'll find him under the username ajump08 on DraftKings and FanDuel.
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