NCAAB

College Basketball Daily Fantasy Helper: Tuesday 1/22/19

Ty Jerome and Virginia draw a great matchup with Wake Forest. Who else should you target on Tuesday's slate?

College basketball season is back! And this year, with it comes the return of college basketball DFS.

March Madness is still two months away, but you can get in all the college hoops hype by playing daily contests at FanDuel today. If you've played NBA DFS before, it's quite simple: pick a total of eight players -- four guards, three forwards and one utility spot you can use for either position. Stay within the $50,000 salary cap and field the team you think will score the most fantasy points.

Where scoring differs from NBA is in the blocks and steals categories, with each worth two FanDuel points apiece rather than the three you get in daily NBA contests.

Now that you're in the know, we can attack today's main slate, which locks at 7:00 p.m. EST and includes 10 games. It's highlighted by a top 25 clash between SEC rivals Mississippi State and Kentucky.

Tuesday, January 22nd
Minnesota at #5 Michigan
#18 Villanova at Butler
#14 Texas Tech at Kansas State
Clemson at Florida State
Notre Dame at Georgia Tech
#22 Mississippi State at #8 Kentucky
#20 Mississippi at Alabama
Indiana at Northwestern
#2 Duke at Pittsburgh
Wake Forest at #3 Virginia


Which players should you be targeting, and why?

Guards

RJ Barrett, Duke ($8,900): Fellow freshman phenom Zion Williamson ($9,100) is the talk of college basketball, and he does have the higher fantasy upside. But Zion also has a higher price, checking in as the only player above $9,000 tonight. If you can find good value plays at guard, you can certainly pay up in this spot, though matchups and roster construction favor lower-cost forwards with more of your salary allocated to guards. Barrett is worth a big chunk of that salary, taking over as the team's point man in the absence of Tre Jones, who will almost certainly miss this game, as well. Last game without Jones, Barrett used 34.2% of his team's offensive possessions on his way to 30 points, 3 assists and a total of 39.5 FanDuel points against the top-flight defense of Virginia. Per KenPom.com, this evening's opponent, Pittsburgh, ranks 19th in defense but has allowed 70-plus points eight times, including four of their five ACC matchups. Duke is implied at a slate-high 84.75 points, so the oddsmakers expect Barrett and company to do a lot of scoring on the road tonight.

Ty Jerome, Virginia ($7,400): The Cavaliers have an implied total of 77.75 points for their home game against Wake Forest. That's 3.75 points above their season average and more than their final tally in all but five of their games. In this type of spot, you want to have a piece of the Cavs, but the question is: Ty Jerome or De'Andre Hunter ($7,300) at the top? Hunter is $100 cheaper (and no one can fault you for picking him in tournaments), but Jerome's 24.3% usage rate is slightly higher while his 30.2% assist rate leads the team. He's turned these opportunities into 13.2 points, 4.8 assists and 27.3 FanDuel points a game. He's averaging even more assists (6.2) in his five conference matchups to date, so he should have no problem producing against a defense that ranks outside the top-200, according to KenPom.

Tyler Herro, Kentucky ($6,800): Most of Kentucky's young players are far too inconsistent these days, but that isn't the case with Herro. Playing 30.1 minutes per game, the 6'5" freshman has averaged 23.4 FanDuel points with 13.5 points on a team-high 10.8 field goal attempts per game. His usage rate is a respectable 22.3%, and he has reached or eclipsed tonight's salary-implied production (27.2 FanDuel points at 4.0 points per $1,000) in each of his last two games and in seven overall for the season. In the new year, he's scored fewer than 12 real-world points only once, and he has three-plus assists in three straight outings. His Wildcats sport the fourth-highest implied total (75.5 points) in the game with the third-highest over/under (144.5) on the slate. Someone's going to do the scoring for UK, and Herro's a solid bet in the price range.

Dazon Ingram, Alabama ($5,000): Alabama-Mississippi carries an even higher total (152.0), which is short of only Duke and Pitt's 156-point total. Plus, there's only a 1.0-point spread in the Tide's favor, meaning this should be a very tight, high-scoring affair in Tuscaloosa. You want exposure on either side, and a low-cost guy like Ingram is very much in play. In the last three games, the junior guard has played at least 25 minutes in each, twice playing 27. He has no more than 17.9 FanDuel points in any one of them, but earlier in the year, he managed to surpass 20 FanDuel points (four-times value at this price) four times. If he gets the minutes again, he can take advantage of a fantastic game script.

Forwards

Donta Hall, Alabama ($7,900): Speaking of that good game script, Hall might be somewhat under-priced when you combine the favorable spot with his recent run of production. The 6'9" senior has three straight double-doubles to his name, giving him nine for the 2018-19 season. But it doesn't start and end with scoring and rebounding as Hall averages two blocks, with three or more in seven contests. He maxed out at 41.2 FanDuel points three games ago, and he's been better at home -- averaging more points, rebounds and blocks in eight home games than he does on the road -- which only boosts his floor and ceiling against Ole Miss.

Mfiondu Kabengele, Florida State (6,300): After starting the year on the mend with a foot injury, Phil Cofer missed the team's last game with an injury to the same area. The senior is deemed day-to-day by his coach, so he looks iffy, at best, for tonight's game. If Cofer sits, Kabengele should benefit again. On Saturday, the sophomore went for 35.8 FanDuel points with 26 points and 9 rebounds. It's the second time in three games he's scored 24-plus points with 9 or more rebounds. And prior to last game, he had at least one swat in six straight. The floor is there, and the ceiling is much higher if Cofer is out against Clemson. The Tigers are 34th in defensive efficiency, but Florida State's 73.0-point implied total is not to be ignored, especially on their home floor.

Marques Bolden, Duke ($5,300): While it's worth paying up for a Barrett or Williamson, paying down for Bolden might be a wise move, too. With Jones out and Barrett sliding over a spot, the junior center played 33 minutes against UVA. He put up a poor 6.8 FanDuel points, but this is the slow and defensively-minded Cavaliers we're talking about. Plus, Bolden notched a double-double with five blocks on his way to 32.2 FanDuel points in a 34-minute outing the game before. Expect more of the first game. After all, Pitt is dead last in the ACC in opponent rebounding, and their 36 blocks against through five ACC games are the most of any team in the conference.

Jermaine Samuels, Villanova ($4,800): After rostering Samuels on Friday, we are going back to the well for obvious reasons. His price is up a mere $300 despite starting the last two games for Villanova. In those starts, Samuels logged 26 and 28 minutes, respectively, and tallied 27.7 and 17.0 FanDuel points. All he needs is 19.2 FanDuel points to reach four-times value at this price, something he's done four other times this season. Butler's defense is 66th in efficiency and 77th in opponent points per game, but value like this isn't easy to find tonight (or most nights).



Brett Oswalt is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Brett Oswalt also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username BRO14THEKID. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.