Free NCAA Basketball Picks: Our Best Bets for January 19 (Archive)
The Virginia Tech Hokies will look to tie the season series at one against the NC State Wolfpack. Can the Hokies get the win on the road? Below, we’ll take a look at the NCAAB odds and the best sportsbook to bet with this week.
Virginia Tech Hokies vs. NC State Wolfpack
Wednesday, January 19, 2022 – 7:00 PM EST at PNC Arena
The Virginia Tech Hokies will look for revenge against the NC State Wolfpack tonight. I say revenge because NC State upset Virginia Tech in Blacksburg to start the new year. That game finished 68-63 and Virginia Tech was pretty even with NC State in every category but rebounding.
But when looking at analytics and stats, Virginia Tech should ultimately win the glass more times than not in this matchup. Maybe that game was an outlier. NC State is allowing 30.9 percent offensive rebounds this season and while NC State is effective on their offensive side of the ball, Virginia Tech has limited teams to 26.8 percent offensive rebounds.
The Hokies are shooting an effective field goal percentage of 54 percent while only turning the ball over 16.9 percent of the time. The percentage is so high because the Hokies are literally shooting 39.3 percent from long range this season. Currently, that's 8th in the nation.
Virginia Tech has also hit 50.7 percent of shots inside and although the Hokies don't get to the line often, they've hit foul shots at 73.8 percent, which is still very good.
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On the other hand, Virginia Tech rates as the better defense as well. The Hokies have held opponents to a 46.4 percent effective field goal percentage while earning 20 percent of turnovers and limiting the offensive glass, as I shared above.
While Virginia Tech has struggled to get to the line, opponents have also struggled to get to the line against the Hokies. NC State is only shooting 70.9 percent from the line, which is obviously worse than Virginia Tech.
The Wolfpack have shot just 32.5 percent from three and 48.2 percent from inside the arc on the season. Both of those numbers are below average. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech has limited opponents from long range to just 27.6 percent on the year.
Defensively, that's going to stand out while NC State has allowed teams to shoot 34.2 percent from three and 51.6 percent from inside the arc. The only thing that favors NC State is how they've been able to limit turnovers, but the reality is, Virginia Tech has forced more turnovers this season and that won't change in this game.
Prediction
If you appreciate experience, Virginia Tech has a whole lot more of it than 9-9 NC State. So, I like the revenge game here for Virginia Tech, even though it's on the road. Everything checks out for Virginia Tech in this game and if they're able to rebound slightly better than the last game against NC State, things will absolutely finish better in comparison to last time.
NCAAB Pick: Virginia Tech -1.5 (-103) with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.