College basketball opens Monday, November 2, with ten games on the DraftKings slate, tipping between 6:00 PM and 10:00 PM ET. Prices are set before anyone has played a real game, and that is where value hides. A cheap player with a real role costs the same as a cheap player who never sees the floor.
How we found them
Value here is our projected DraftKings points, times the chance the player suits up, divided by his salary, per $1,000. To make the list a player needs at least an 80% chance to play, a projected 15 minutes or more, and a clean match between our projections and the DraftKings salary file. We keep one player per game, so the picks spread across the slate instead of piling into one matchup.
The five best value plays
Opening night, 10 games
Preview| # | Player | Salary | Proj | Plays | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tylik WeeksMEM · F · MEM @ ISU 7:00 PM ET98% to play | $3,700 | 23.7 | 98% | 6.3 |
| 2 | Jack WhitbournFORD · F · FORD @ KU 8:00 PM ET84% to play | $3,100 | 20.9 | 84% | 5.7 |
| 3 | Sebastian WilkinsDUKE · G/F · ARMY @ DUKE 6:30 PM ET100% to play | $3,000 | 16.9 | 100% | 5.6 |
| 6 | Darius BivinsSTMRY · G · ILLST @ STMRY 10:00 PM ET98% to play | $3,000 | 16.5 | 98% | 5.4 |
| 9 | LJ SmithOSU · G · OSU @ BYU 9:00 PM ET100% to play | $3,000 | 15.3 | 100% | 5.1 |
Preview. This list freezes about an hour before the 6 PM ET tip and is graded after the games. Projections run through games of the last box score.
These are leans, not locks. Opening night is the noisiest night of the year: projections lean on last season, the exhibition games and the roster information we have, and a coach can change a rotation in the first four minutes.
How these picks did
We freeze this list before the first tip and grade it after the final box scores come in. Hits and misses both go in the table, and a player who does not play counts as a miss.
Graded after the games, hits and misses both shown. Check back after the final box scores are in.
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