Free Pick | NCAA | Saturday | Jan. 18

Nelly’s is on a 13-6 basketball run since January 7 – including a blowout win Friday night!

We have our next NFL Playoff pick set for Saturday as well, 18-10 since the 2020-21 NFL playoffs.

Don’t miss a Saturday Night 7* Top Play in college basketball!

#603 Alabama +2.5 over Kentucky 11:00 AM CT

Alabama suffered a 10-point home loss on Tuesday hosting Mississippi to slip to 14-3 overall and just 3-1 in SEC play. This road test will be one of the more difficult games of the SEC season, but Alabama has four wins in true road games plus three other wins in non-home venues this season. The win column provides a glowing list of quality teams including wins over Illinois, Houston, North Carolina, and Texas A&M with Alabama 6-3 S/U vs. top 50 teams. The blistering pace for the Tide on offense makes Alabama a difficult matchup and the outside shooting numbers have improved for Alabama in SEC play so far. Kentucky has faced a more difficult SEC path than Alabama so far to reach 3-1 as well, but the home wins haven’t been dominant results and the overall defensive numbers for the Wildcats are quite average for Mark Pope’s team, especially relative to John Calipari’s best Kentucky teams. Both teams have the benefit of picking up recent wins over Texas A&M without Wade Taylor playing but the other two wins for Kentucky in SEC play both came by slim margins with exceptional 3-point shooting, hitting 48 percent against Florida and 50 percent vs. Mississippi State, both rates well above the season average for the Wildcats, and a rate that will be difficult to match at the pace of play hanging with Alabama will require.