{"id":174050,"date":"2026-01-23T07:30:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T12:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=174050"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:31:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:31:31","slug":"bold-predictions-in-college-basketball-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/01\/23\/bold-predictions-in-college-basketball-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Bold Predictions in College Basketball This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

It might not be March yet, but that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s not Madness in the world of college basketball. It\u2019s been a wild season already, and we\u2019re just getting started. If you haven\u2019t been watching the first two months of college basketball season, let me catch you up: Michigan has been a buzzsaw, Arizona is still unbeaten thanks to a few freshmen, the \u201cusual suspects\u201d like Duke, Houston, Purdue, and Gonzaga are still lurking around, and Miami (the one in Ohio) is still unbeaten! Let\u2019s see if we can call our shot on the Madness this weekend!<\/p>\n

College Basketball Bold Predictions<\/h2>\n

Houston goes into Lubbock and beats Texas Tech behind a double-double from Chris Cenac<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019ve been watching Houston this season, you probably remember Milos Uzan and Joseph Tugler from last year\u2019s team, and you\u2019ve probably noticed highly-touted freshman point guard Kingston Flemings. I think this weekend is a great time for a breakout from Houston\u2019s \u201cother\u201d star freshman, Chris Cenac, who will be going toe-to-toe with NPOY candidate JT Toppin.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kansas State upsets the Jayhawks in the Little Apple<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When they\u2019re at their best, the Kansas Jayhawks (with Darryn Peterson in the lineup) look like a National Championship contender. But they\u2019re not always at their best. I think Kansas State has the offensive firepower, led by PJ Haggerty, to take down their in-state rivals on their home court.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Caleb Wilson scores 30 as North Carolina upsets Virginia<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many national writers were down on the Tar Heels after their back-to-back losses on their West Coast road trip. I\u2019m still riding the Tar Heel train. They haven\u2019t lost a game that\u2019s within 500 miles of their campus. Last time I checked, Charlottesville, Virginia, isn\u2019t that far away. I also don\u2019t see anyone on Virginia who is both athletic enough and big enough to guard Caleb Wilson.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Providence gets even more revenge on Ed Cooley as they beat Georgetown by 20<\/h3>\n
\"Stefan
Photo Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the most notable coaching moves in the last decade of the Big East was when Ed Cooley left Providence to go coach Georgetown, and the Friar faithful were not too happy about it. Cooley is currently 1-4 against the Friars at Georgetown, and he has not won at Providence. I think this trend continues. This Providence team can really score, led by freshman Stefan Vaaks, and Georgetown is not a good defensive team, ranking outside the top-100 nationally in defensive efficiency, per KenPom.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt gets back on track thanks to a 25-5-5 game from Tyler Tanner<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Vanderbilt Commodores started the season 16-0, but are currently in the midst of a 3-game losing streak. It\u2019s become clear what the Commodores\u2019 kryptonite is \u2013 they don\u2019t handle size well. Good news for them \u2013 Mississippi State has not yet found a reliable frontcourt rotation, and their smaller guards should not pose a matchup issue to Tyler Tanner.<\/p>\n

For more great college basketball analysis, check out DrRoto.com<\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It might not be March yet, but that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s not Madness in the world of college basketball. It\u2019s been a wild season already, and we\u2019re just getting started. If you haven\u2019t been watching the first two months of college basketball season, let me catch you up: Michigan has been a buzzsaw, Arizona is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5637,"featured_media":174054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,50437,50440],"tags":[1046,1512,4052,914,1480,789],"class_list":["post-174050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-nba-predictions","category-ncaa-predictions","tag-houston-cougars","tag-kansas-state-wildcats","tag-nba-predictions","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-providence-friars","tag-vanderbilt-commodores"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174050"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174058,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174050\/revisions\/174058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}