college basketball Archives

#837 ASA FREE PLAY ON California +16 over UCLA, Thursday at 9 PM ET

UCLA is in a big time letdown spot here after their biggest win of the season on Tuesday vs Arizona. The Bruins had some serious motivation in that game as they were home dogs and wanted to prove a point. They did just that. Now they face a Cal team they beat by 8 earlier this month so we expect a flat effort from UCLA. It’s also their 3^rd game in 6 days having already played on Saturday and Tuesday. California is in a better situation having played just 1 game in the last 12 days. The Bears are the type of team and play the type of game that will make it tough for the Bruins to pull away. They play solid defense ranking 46^th nationally in eFG% allowed and they take care of the ball turning it over just 16.7% of the time – 52^nd lowest mark in the country. Both teams like to play at a very slow pace ranking below 300^th in tempo which is why this total only sits in the high 120’s. In what is expected to be a low scoring game, the favorite can have a tough time pulling away as the possessions will be limited. In the first meeting a few weeks ago the Bears made only one 3-point shot (1 of 14 for 7%) and went to the FT line just 7 times. Despite that they still hung tough losing 60-52. UCLA wins here but not by 16+.