College basketball DFS picks: 3 Underdog plays for Saturday’s SEC slate (Jan. 31)
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This Saturday features another action-packed slate of seven SEC contests.
There are multiple big games on the horizon, including matchups that will surely have postseason implications for both the SEC Tournament and March Madness.
As always, we’re hunting for value in DFS markets and have found three potential plays for Saturday’s SEC slate.
Saturday, Jan. 31 DFS college basketball predictions
Let’s break things down with three picks on Underdog Fantasy:
Tyler Tanner higher than 19.5 points
We were on Tanner last week too, which paid off. His projection last Saturday was 16.5 points and he delivered with an efficient 24-point outburst. The reason for the increased 19-point projection today is the absence of Duke Miles. That usage has to go somewhere, and I think Tanner will absorb a lot of the scoring responsibility that Miles typically takes on. Miles has missed one other SEC game this season — against South Carolina on Jan. 3. In that game, Tanner scored 19 points, got to the foul line 10 times and had a whopping 14 assists. Tanner is now playing an Ole Miss defense that fouls a ton (dead last in the SEC in defensive free throw rate) and gives up a ton of 3-point shots (14th in 3PA rate), which are two of Tanner’s strengths. He should have a big day for Vanderbilt on Saturday.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie higher than 19.5 points
I’m taking the high side of another volume scorer, which admittedly seems a little dangerous. But Gillespie has the bonafides to back it up. He has at least 15 field goal attempts in five of seven SEC games. The only exceptions were a blowout loss to Florida and then a 12-shot game against Kentucky in-which he got to the charity stripe a dozen times. The volume and efficiency have both been there. It’s also worth noting that Gillespie is quite literally Tennessee’s only 3-point threat (no one else has at least 40 attempts with a 35% hit rate for the season) and he’s facing an Auburn defense that’s dead-last in opponent 3-point shooting percentage (38%) and 15th in opponent 3-point attempt rate (44.6%) so far in conference play.
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T.O. Barrett lower than 11.5 points
I think this projection is just a bit high. The Mizzou guard has seen a pretty significant minutes increase over the last 5 games and has still only scored 12+ points twice over that span. He’s not an outside shooter, instead relying on getting to the rim. Per BartTorvik, Barrett has only taken 13 “far twos” and 19 3-pointers all season. That profile is not a great matchup against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs do a pretty good job of limiting rim attacks (20.6% frequency rate per Hoop-Explorer) and instead are often getting hit with mid-range and outside shots.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
