Welcome back to another DFS CBB slate featuring the later rounds of tonight’s college basketball conference tournaments! On the main slates - tipping at 7 pm ET on DraftKings and 6:30 pm ET on FanDuel - we get games from the power conferences’ tourneys with tons of marquee programs in action. Highlighted by Duke-UNC (with Zion Williamson finally healthy!), we have plenty of other matchups between bubble teams and Top 25 powerhouses fighting for seeding rights for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

DraftKings’ 12-game slate tips at 7 pm ET while FanDuel has thrown in the earlier Xavier-Villanova Big East semifinal (at 6:30 pm ET) to stretch their slate to 13 games. With no late swap option on FD, make sure you keep in mind the lineup lock coming a half-hour earlier than usual. Obviously there are other conference tournament games going on earlier today, but we’ll just focus on the nighttime main slates for the purposes of this Playbook.

With a specific eye towards recent game trends, favorable and/or tough individual matchups, rotation changes and KenPom’s advanced stats, we’ll outline the guards and forwards to prioritize in your DFS CBB lineups today for both sites. We’ll also point out the games to generally target and fade based on pace of play, points spread and implied point totals (as predicted by KenPom).

If you have any questions or comments about CBB DFS strategy or college basketball in general, feel free to hit up my Twitter @dan_servodidio. Good luck!

 

Games To Target:

  • Seton Hall vs. Marquette - 9 pm ET (MARQ -4 / 143 Implied Total)

  • Duke vs. North Carolina - 9 pm ET (DUKE -2 / 164 Implied Total)

  • West Virginia vs. Kansas - 9 pm ET (KU -11 / 149 Implied Total)

  • Mississippi State vs. Tennessee - 9:30 pm ET (TEN -5 / 151 Implied Total)

 

Games To Fade:

  • Iowa State vs. Kansas State - 7 pm ET (ISU -1 / 131 Implied Total)

  • Florida State vs. Virginia - 7 pm ET (UVA -9 / 127 Implied Total)

  • Colorado vs. Washington - 9 pm ET (WASH -2 / 130 Implied Total)

 

Guards

Myles Powell - SHU ($9,300 DK / $8,700 FD)

If you haven’t been rostering Myles Powell during his current hot streak - well, there’s still time to jump on board! The junior point guard has been on an offensive tear this past month-plus as he’s nearly single-handedly willed Seton Hall into an NCAA Tournament bid. Powell is averaging 42 DK points and 25 real points over the last ten games and he’s coming off a performance yesterday in the Big East tournament opener when he scored 31 real points (and 47+ DK points) and, at one point, was even outscoring Georgetown all by himself in the first half. Tonight, he’ll face Marquette - a team he’s had big games against in two games this season. In those outings, Powell averaged 27.5 real points, four assists, seven rebounds and 44.5 DK points and he just recently scored 34 points against them a week ago. If you’re trying to decide between Powell and Marquette’s Markus Howard (who’s about the same price on both sites), it’s an easy decision to go with Seton Hall’s go-to scorer with the offensive usage, shot volume and pure scoring he can provide for a higher fantasy floor. The tougher choice may be whether or not you pay up for Powell or Duke’s Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett - which could actually mean lower ownership for the Pirates’ stud.

 

Kyle Guy - UVA ($6,900 DK / $6,400 FD)

Although Virginia mostly plays in low-scoring, slow-paced games, Guy has been able to be productive as a prolific three-point shooter with solid production in other stat categories to give him a nice DFS floor. Plus, tonight’s matchup vs. Florida State definitely plays into Guy’s strengths as a perimeter threat. The Seminoles are a force in the paint with two talented shot-blockers (Kabengele and Koumadje), but they are one of the worst ACC teams at defending the three-point line. Guy, meanwhile, has the conference’s third-best percentage from deep (45%) and is coming off a performance yesterday when he hit 7-of-9 three-pointers with 29 real points scored and 44 DK points. When he faced Florida State earlier this season, Guy went 5-for-6 from three-point range and had 21 real points, five boards, three assists and nearly 36 DK points. The Virginia senior ended the regular season on a hot shooting streak and has now carried that into the ACC tourney - shooting 50.6% from deep in the last ten games with four different outings of at least 35 DK points. The price differential on FanDuel is expected as that site does not give a bonus for made three-pointers like DraftKings does - but he can still return value with his contribution in rebounds, assists and steals to go with his pure scoring ability.

 

Tyson Carter - MSST ($5,700 DK / $6,400 FD)

Since taking over the starting role in Mississippi State’s lineup for the suspended Nick Weatherspoon, Carter has been an offensive force and a real threat from the three-point line in the past month. The junior shooting guard has now scored at least 14 real points in five straight games while shooting 47.6% from three-point range (20-for-42). The matchup tonight vs. Tennessee definitely plays into his strengths from deep as well. The Tennessee defense tends to allow three-point shooters to have big games and Carter just put up 33+ DK points and led Mississippi State in scoring (14 points) when he faced them earlier in March near the end of the regular season. Carter’s salary is slowly increasing - but he can still return value on both sites as he’s averaged 27 DK points since joining the starting rotation eight games ago.

 

Jordan McCabe - WVU ($5,400 DK / $5,700 FD)

If you’re not familiar with West Virginia’s 2018-19 campaign, McCabe personifies the late push the team is making after a disappointing stretch of play during conference action in the middle of the season. The Mountaineers have now upset both Oklahoma and Texas Tech in the opening rounds of the Big 12 tournament and have won four of the last six despite going 4-14 in league play during the regular season. They’ve looked like a totally different team ever since McCabe was inserted as the starting point guard seven games ago - the freshman is on a run much like that of Nick Foles when he led the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl 52 victory. McCabe is simply playing on “house money” and he’s not far removed from playing less than 10 minutes in conference action - like when he logged just five minutes vs. Kansas back in January. He’s coming off an impressive performance last night when he put up 37 DK points, 13 real points, eight assists, four rebounds and four steals - plus, he’s now averaging 32.4 DK points in his seven straight starts. This West Virginia team, led by McCabe as the distributor and lead ball-handler, will be hungry to continue their run and upset Kansas - who have not looked like the top 5 team they were to start the year.

 

Other Guards to Consider:

  • RJ Barrett - DUKE ($10,800 DK / $9,400 FD) - Forward-eligible on DK

  • Shizz Alston - TEMP ($9,000 DK / $8,400 FD)

  • Amir Coffey - MINN ($6,700 DK / $7,500 FD)

  • Nojel Eastern - PUR ($5,600 DK / $6,000 FD)

  • D’Shawn Schwartz - COLO ($4,900 DK / $4,900 FD)

 

Forwards

Zion Williamson - DUKE ($11,000 DK / $9,800 FD)

In case you missed it, the headline in college basketball last night was the return of Zion Williamson and it’s safe to say - he’s baaaaack! Zion frankly looked exactly like the Player of the Year candidate he was before his infamous knee injury forced him to miss the last 5+ games. He logged 36 minutes and put up a monster performance of 29 points, 14 rebounds, five steals and a block while shooting a perfect 13-for-13 from the field. The Duke freshman didn’t seem hampered in his first game back and didn’t see limited minutes as some expected - but instead threw down highlight-reel dunks, was a force defensively and dominated the paint in this ACC quarterfinal matchup vs. Syracuse. Tonight, though, we get the game college basketball fans have been dying for ever since Williamson went down a minute into his first meeting vs. UNC in late February. The price is certainly a hefty one to pay if you want to roster him, but Zion has been worth it nearly every game this season.   

Xavier Sneed - KSU ($6,900 DK / $6,000 FD) // Makol Mawien - KSU ($4,400 DK / $4,500 FD)

When it was reported that Kansas State’s best player and starting forward Dean Wade could miss the entire Big 12 tournament with a foot injury, the Wildcats filling in for him immediately needed to be considered. Yesterday in K-State’s conference opener, we saw that both Sneed and Mawien could be values in DFS as they both picked up the slack offensively and defensively in Wade’s absence. Sneed got a noticeable uptick in shot volume and offensive usage and he didn’t disappoint - putting up 19 points, seven rebounds, five assists and 38+ DK points while shooting 6-for-12 from the field and 4-for-8 from three-point range. Meanwhile, the 6’9” Mawien was also more involved on both ends and he finished with 26 DK points, 10 real points, eight boards, two blocks and two steals - a solid stat line for someone as cheap as he is. We saw a similar type of production from Mawien earlier this season when Wade missed six games in December/January. Although tonight’s matchup vs. Iowa State should be a low-scoring one, Sneed and Mawien could both have performances like they did in yesterday’s 70-61 victory over TCU.

Emmitt Matthews - WVU ($4,300 DK / $4,600 FD)

The simple fact that Matthews’ salary remains below 5k on both sites tonight makes him a lock-play in all formats. The freshman is coming off a career performance last night when he anchored West Virginia to an upset victory over Texas Tech in the Big 12 tourney behind 28 real points scored, eight rebounds, two steals and a block for a whopping 45.5 DK points. Matthews has now started nine straight for the Mountaineers with Sagaba Konate, Esa Ahmad and James Bolden all hurt and head coach Bob Huggins rolling out a young lineup (led by Matthews) that’s ending the season on a hot streak. We have to continue to roster Matthews as long as he’s this cheap. He’s now put up at least 23 DK points in four of the last five games and tonight he gets a favorable matchup vs. Kansas - who is susceptible to allowing big games to opposing forwards.
 

Other Forwards to Consider:

  • Grant Williams - TENN ($9,500 DK / $8,900 FD)

  • Derek Culver - WVU ($7,800 DK / $7,100 FD)

  • Markis McDuffie - WICH ($7,000 DK / $7,200 FD)

  • David McCormack - KU ($4,000 DK / $3,900 FD)

  • Galin Smith - ALA ($3,200 DK / $3,300 FD)

 

Example Lineup on DraftKings:

G: Myles Powell, SHU - $9,300

G: Kyle Guy, UVA - $6,900

G: Jordan McCabe, WVU - $5,400

F: Zion Williamson, DUKE - $11,000

F: Emmitt Matthews, WVU - $4,300

F: David McCormack, KU - $4,000

U: Tyson Carter, MSST - $5,700

U: Galin Smith, ALA - $3,200

 

Example Lineup on FanDuel:

G: Myles Powell, SHU - $8,700

G: Kyle Guy, UVA - $6,400

G: Jordan McCabe, WVU - $5,700

G: Tyson Carter, MSST - $6,400

F: Zion Williamson, DUKE - $9,800

F: Emmitt Matthews, WVU - $4,600

F: David McCormack, KU - $3,900

U: Makol Mawien, KSU - $4,500