This article is part of our DFS College Basketball series.
Our early slate includes 12 games, tipping at noon and spans all the way to a 5:20 tip out west with UCLA - Oregon. The latter seven games double into an afternoon contest at DraftKings, so there's plenty of action to sort through, contests to enter and money to be won all before dinner!
The featured early slate has $12,000 in total prizes and $3,000 to first place, pretty standard for the year. There's still a $1,000 first-place prize in the reduced game slate, where only 294 entries are available, so those odds aren't terrible. We'll focus on all 12 games, but if the late seven stand out, so be it!
Only two players are priced at $9,000 or greater. We may need to pay particularly close attention to the frontcourts, where only six forwards check in at $8,000 or greater, speaking to the lack of high-end options. Do you punt that position and load up on quality guards, or lock in two studs and take secondary backcourt options? Arizona - USC leads our expected scoring at 157.0 points, followed closely by UNC - Florida State (154.5) and BYU - Texas Tech (154).
Top Targets
Hunter Sallis, G, Wake Forest ($7,900)
There are a plethora of mid-tier forwards in this game that are priced favorably (Andrew Carr, Blake Hinson and Efton Reid), and given the lack of quality bigs, I expect they'll be popular targets. So I'm leaning towards pivoting/fading there and taking Sallis on the high end in this game that should be close and reasonably high-scoring. Sallis didn't shoot well yesterday against Notre Dame, and that's of mild concern as maybe he's just not seeing it well in the tournament venue. But prior to yesterday's dud, he'd averaged 19.4 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.1 steals in nine games, with a 26.5 percent usage rate. Pitt also had no answer for him in season, where he averaged 35.0 DKP in two matchups. In the same price tier, USC's Isaiah Collier makes perfect sense.
Cam Spencer, G, Connecticut ($7,100)
We're getting a nice price break on Spencer, who's been as much as $1,000 greater. I initially liked Mississippi State's Josh Hubbard here, but his recent run is 99 percent scoring; he does next to nothing else, which means he can bottom out. Spencer on the other hand offers diverse fantasy production, which makes for a safer play. Case in point, he averaged 12.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 3.0 steals in two meetings with Xavier. The Huskies also averaged 89.5 points in those matchups. If we get some pace here and the Musketeers can stay close, Spencer has enormous upside.
Middle Tier
Armando Bacot, F, North Carolina ($6,800)
Bacot isn't the Heels' offensive focal point, and honestly, he's not particularly offensively skilled. It's led to an inconsistent season statistically, so he's more of a ceiling play than a floor play. But at this price, isn't the ceiling worth chasing? True to season-long form, he erupted against FSU in December for 41.5 DKP and provided only 16.0 DKP in their second matchup despite 34 minutes and no foul trouble. He's been a bit more regular since the calendar turned to February, averaging 14.9 points and 10.5 rebounds, only twice failing to score in double-digits while grabbing at least seven boards in nine of 10.
Aly Khalifa, F, BYU ($5,200)
This slate is a prime example of utilizing all of Rotowire's DFS tools. This column is never intended to give you six picks to straight build a lineup with, but rather different tiers of players at each position to allow you to choose from to help build. We have a plethora of options priced between $6,000 - $8,000, and I want as many of them as possible, so Khalifa is a necessary evil to make that happen. BYU plays such a wide rotation, there's wide ranging results game to game. Khalifa has played 10 games since a two-game absence and returned 3x or better in six of those, so he seems relatively safe. He's also shown upside, posting a 14-7-7 line against Baylor, and a 21-7-3 line against Texas Tech pre-injury. Nothing suggests he'll get more than 20 minutes here, but the game will have points, and he's got a puncher's shot at popping off.
Bargain Options
Robert Jennings, F, Texas Tech ($4,800)
First, we'll need to confirm Warren Washington is not available. Jennings has stepped into the starting lineup over Washington's four-game absence, and while the usage is paltry (13.8 percent), the role has been decent, averaging 20.8 minutes and returning 16.38 DKP. Not quite a 4x return, but he's never been under a 2x return either, so there is some hope he won't bottom out, and he's topped 20 DKP in two straight. It's a cheap entry point into a game with a high expected total, as well as a way to squeeze that third forward into your lineup on the cheap
Myles Stute, G, South Carolina ($3,700)
Stute is priced so low the production may not matter. He's played two games since a three-game absence, and the minutes haven't really been limited (14 and 21). To be frank, getting anywhere near 20 minutes against Arkansas' 35th-ranked tempo should allow him to reach 10 DKP. Stute shoots 39.6 percent from 3-point range overall, and Arkansas ranks 206th in 3-point percentage defense, allowing opponents to connect at a 34.2 percent clip.
