College Basketball Single-Game Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 2/12/21 (Georgia Tech at Clemson)
In a traditional FanDuel college basketball lineup, you have a $60,000 salary cap to roster eight players. In the single-game setup, the salary cap is the same, but the lineup requirements are different.
You select five players of any position, but not all lineup slots are the same. One of your players will be your MVP, and his FanDuel points are multiplied by two. You also select a STAR player, whose production is multiplied by 1.5, and a PRO, whose points are multiplied by 1.2. Two utility players round out the roster, and they don't receive a multiplier to their production.
This makes the five players you select important in more than one way, as you need to focus on slotting in the best plays in the multiplier slots rather than just nailing the best overall plays of the game.
All stats come from KenPom unless otherwise noted.
Player Breakdowns
At The Top
Moses Wright, Georgia Tech ($13,000) - Wright possesses the highest ceiling amongst the Friday night participants due to his ability to dominate both ends of the court. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets' forward is averaging 16.1 points (second on the team), 7.6 rebounds (leads team), 2.2 assists, 1.8 steals (second on the team), and 1.6 blocks (leads team) in 36.0 minutes. He's the only player on this single-game slate averaging over 1.0 FanDuel points per minute (1.02). Consequently, I think he'll be the most popular MVP selection.
Jose Alvarado, Georgia Tech ($12,500) - The Yellow Jackets' point guard is a threat on both ends of the court. While none of the Yellow Jackets' starters has a dominant usage rate, Alvarado leads the way with a 121.1 offensive rating. Additionally, he's a very efficient scorer as he is posting a 62.6% effective field goal percentage. The senior has an eye-popping 23.6% assist rate and 4.5% steal rate (19th nationally). He's recorded at least 20 FanDuel points in 11 straight games (over 40 FanDuel points in five of those games).
Aamir Simms, Clemson ($12,000) - Simms is the Clemson Tigers' star player and his seasonal rates are strong across the board. The senior leads the Tigers in usage rate (25.5%), offensive rebounding rate (12.0%), and assist rate (22.9%). He's found his groove as the calendar turns toward March. Simms is averaging 30.4 FanDuel points over the last four games. I suspect Simms' rostership at the MVP slot will be lower than Wright and Alvarado.
In The Middle
Clyde Trapp, Clemson ($10,500) - Trapp has seen a huge increase in playing over the last two weeks. He's played 35-plus minutes in three out of the last four games -- the lone exception was a blowout loss in which he played 26 minutes (seasonal average is 27.1 minutes per game). He averaged 24.4 FanDuel points over those four games. His strong play should continue against Georgia Tech's struggling defense. The Yellow Jackets have the 77th-ranked defense nationally.
Jordan Usher, Georgia Tech ($10,000) - Georgia Tech plays a six-to-seven man rotation. All five starters are averaging more than 29 minutes per game. Usher has a starting role and has the ability to contribute in every major statistical category. The senior is taking 22.0% of the team's shots when he's on the floor. Additionally, his 15.2% defensive rebounding rate and 18.0% assist rate rank second amongst all Yellow Jacket regulars. If that's not enough, Usher is a stalwart on defense as he owns a 3.8% block rate and 2.4% steal rate.
Nick Honor, Clemson ($9,500) - Honor leads all Tigers with a 23.4% shot rate and his 19.2% assist rate ranks second amongst Clemson players. The tough part about the Clemson side is that they play a ton of players (the rotation usually goes 11 players deep). Honor's 23.1 minutes per game actually ranks fourth amongst all Tigers. He's the second-leading scorer with 9.0 points per game.
At The Bottom
Bubba Parham, Georgia Tech ($9,500) - Parham is a low usage player (12.2%) but he's efficient when he has chances to score (effective field goal percentage of 52.7). His other rates are fairly pedestrian (10.6% defensive rebounding rate, 10.8% assist rate, and 2.0% steal rate) but his playing time makes him a viable option. He is the one player in the bottom salary tier that will play 30-plus minutes (averaging 30.7 minutes per game).
Hunter Tyson, Clemson ($7,500) - Tyson's playing time has been wildly inconsistent despite drawing a starting assignment. Over the last five games, he's logged 24-plus minutes in two games and under 9 minutes in the other three games. Since the bottom salary tier is underwhelming, it's worth gambling on Tyson. If he manages to run into 20-plus minutes, he should easily outscore every player in this salary range. Tyson is averaging .78 FanDuel points per minute which is .14 FanDuel points per minute more than any player under $9,500 on this slate.
Alex Hemenway, Clemson ($6,500) - The bottom tier is unusually thin as Clemson loves to play a ton of players. Consequently, very few Tigers will sniff 20 minutes of action on any given night. That brings us to Hemenway. He's not a great play by any means but he has logged 20-plus minutes in two straight games. Most importantly, he brings a ton of salary relief. If he can scratch out 10 FanDuel points, that might be enough on this slate.
Matthew Hiatt is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Matthew Hiatt also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username easternmh. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
