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List of Key CBB Injuries for Upcoming Games
When handicapping college basketball you have to be fully aware of each team’s injury situation. You simply can’t expect to profit long-term in college hoops not knowing who is playing. Luckily we live in the information era, where a lot of the research is done for us.
You don’t have to spend countless hours searching the web to see if a player is expected to play or not. You can simply go to this page and look up the injury reports for every college basketball team in the country.
Tips on How to Handicap the College Basketball Injury Report
A lot of amateurs who bet on college basketball will glance over the injuries and just look to see if a starter is out. If there is, they will be more inclined to fade that team. However, it depends on how good that player is perceived to be. The more elite the talent, the more likely the public will look to fade that team with him out.
The problem with this strategy is the books adjust the college basketball betting lines accordingly. Let’s say a team would have been a 10-point favorite but is now only laying 5-points after losing a key player to injury. You aren’t getting any value betting the other side at 5.
I’m not saying you won’t win, just don’t expect to profit in the long haul. In fact, a lot of times you want to take the team that just lost a key player. That’s because there’s usually a short up tick in how hard the other guys play after losing a star player.
You want to focus more on trying to find value by looking for injuries to players that aren’t big names. Oddsmakers are less likely to adjust the lines if it’s not someone who puts up big numbers. Like any team sport, their are some guys who can really impact a teams performance without filling up the box score.
One of my favorite things to look for is when a lesser known point guard suffers an injury. The point guard is the quarterback of the offense. Losing him almost always has a negative impact on a team’s ability to score. It’s even a bigger blow if he’s a top level defender.
You also want to take into consideration how the injury impacts the team they are playing. You have to look at the strength and weaknesses of the opponent. For example, losing your center against a team with no height isn’t a huge deal.
Another big key is depth and coaching. You need to have an understanding if a team has someone capable of stepping in at that position. I also think a good coach can coach around an injury.
Lastly, the more injuries a team suffers at one given time the worse off they are. Losing your worst starter and top two reserves can have the same impact as losing your best player.
There’s also futures to consider as well. You aren’t going to want the bet the NCAA tournament odds on a team that has a major player sitting on the sidelines in March. If you can find a good team with a key player returning, there might be some value there.
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