College Basketball Best Bets Today:
It is a big night for the Big Ten with two Friday games in the spotlight, as Michigan faces Purdue and Penn State battles Iowa. UCLA and Washington is also a Big Ten game, which still feels insane to say, even though it’s been several months now with those schools as conference members.
The MAC, A-10, and NEC are also well-represented tonight, along with some other one-offs. It is a pretty diverse slate for only having 13 games on the board.
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Tracking sheet is here. 2023-24 for reference is here.
This article will run Monday-Saturday (not next week, see exception above). Lines will be from DraftKings, as they are widely available to readers. Shop around for the best prices.
Shout-outs to Bart Torvik, Erik Haslam, and Ken Pomeroy, as those are my three primary resources for information when handicapping.
Check the latest college basketball odds for legal U.S. sportsbooks across the country and our Vegas odds if you share a state with us here at VSiN. Also, give the college basketball betting splits a look for these or any other college basketball games today have your interest.
Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publish.
UCLA Bruins (-5, 138) at Washington Huskies
11 p.m. ET
The Bruins should be plenty motivated for the next little while as they look to make up for lost time. Mick Cronin was very critical of his team and then critical of their travel schedule during a rough start to January with four straight losses, including road games at Nebraska, Maryland, and Rutgers. They lost by 19 at home to Michigan in that span, as Michigan played USC prior to that and was waiting on the Bruins to come back from Lincoln.
Home wins over Iowa and Wisconsin seemed to stabilize things a bit. Now the Bruins head to Seattle, a much easier trip from LAX than any of the others, looking to pick up a decent road win.
It should be a good matchup for UCLA. I normally don’t like teams that take a lot of mid-range jumpers, but it works against Washington, who has a blind spot defending those. Opponents are shooting 42.2% on Farther Twos as defined by Torvik against the Washington defense, which ranks 315th in the nation.
Both teams struggle to defend at the rim, with Washington 316th at 63.2% and UCLA 325th at 63.7%, but Washington has a shot share under 40% there. I think this is a spot for UCLA’s defense to bounce back after really struggling lately. They did beat Wisconsin last time out despite a 15-of-30 effort from 3 for the Badgers.
Washington is over a full percent below the national average shooting 3s for first-year head coach Danny Sprinkle, whose Huskies have lost seven of eight against Big Ten foes.
Pick: UCLA -5
