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College Hoops Preview: Arizona vs. UCLA (Jan. 15)

The Arizona Wildcats and the UCLA Bruins will both be trying to pick up a win on Thursday when they battle at Pauley Pavilion…

College Hoops West Coast Style – Arizona at UCLA

The number 7th ranked UCLA Bruins host the Arizona Wildcats on Thursday night in a rivalry that has lost some of its intensity. At one time, the Wildcats and Bruins ruled the Pac-10. That’s not the case anymore. UCLA is still a Pac-10 juggernaut having gone to the final four in each of the past two seasons. Online sportsbook betting fans know that the UCAL Bruins are a terrific team straight-up, one needs only to look at their 13 and 2 straight-up record, but against the BetUS online wagering spread, the Bruins have been an iffy online bet at best. They are 7 and 7 against the spread so far this season and 3 and 5 against the spread at home.

The Arizona Wildcats have actually performed quite admirably after the retirement of their hall of fame coach, Lute Olsen. The Wildcats are 11 and 5 straight-up and 8 and 6 against the BetUS online betting spread. They are a decent enough team for online betting fans to consider making basketball bets on under certain circumstances.

Here are the BetUS online sportsbook betting odds for this game.

Arizona Wildcats +11 – 110
UCLA Bruins -11 – 110

Here are a few online wagering trends that might help us find a good online bet in this game.

The Arizona Wildcats are 1 and 6 against the spread in their last 7 games on the road.
The Arizona Wildcats are 2 and 5 against the spread in the last 7 meetings between these two teams. The UCLA Bruins are 0 and 4 against the spread in their last 4 games following an against the spread win.
The UCLA Bruins are 5 and 0 against the spread in their last 5 games against a team with a winning straight-up record.

The UCLA Bruins have fought their way back into the top ten by playing very well as a unit. In their last game four out of the five starters scored in double figures and four out of the five starters had at least two rebounds.

Those are pretty good stats. It means that this team is much more than just Darren Collison and Josh Shipp.

But the problem is that they are giving up a crazy 11 points in this game. The Arizona Wildcats might not be as good as the Bruins but they have talent with Nic Wise running the point and Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill carrying the load upfront.

I want to wager on the UCLA Bruins because I believe that they’re going to win the game but I can’t give up 11 points to a team like the Arizona Wildcats. The Wildcats have already beaten Gonzaga, Kansas and Oregon this season. They are a solid team.

Arizona vs. UCLA Prediction:

I’ll be making an online bet on the Arizona Wildcats to beat the 11 point spread in the BetUS online sportsbook in this game.