NCAA Basketball Betting – UCLA Bruins vs. Texas Longhorns
Two of the top teams in the land with aspirations of a National Championship meet in a potential Final Four match-up in Austin, Texas when the UCLA Bruins (4-1, 2-3 ATS) invade the Frank Erwin Center to do battle with the Texas Longhorns (5-1, 3-2 ATS). For a start of the season that has already seen plenty of Top-10 teams do battle, this could be one of the best sports betting match-ups of the season.
HC Ben Howland’s Bruins rank 9th in this week’s USA Today poll, while HC Rick Barnes’ Longhorns come in at #8. This will be a very impressive non-conference victory for one of these teams as they look to build their resumes towards a #1 seed in March’s Big Dance. Last December, these two teams met at Pauley Pavilion. Texas held off a late UCLA rally and beat the Bruins 63-61, pulling the upset as massive 10-point road underdogs.
After opening up the season with three straight duds for UCLA bettors, the Bruins appear to have righted the ship just in time for this college basketball betting match-up. After rolling over Southern Illinois in its final game of the Preseason NIT, UCLA returned to the court on Saturday against Florida International. The Golden Panthers were outmatched from start to finish. The Bruins took a whopping 46-13-halftime lead and coasted to the finish line, resulting in an 89-54 victory that easily covered the 24-point spread on the closing NCAAB betting line.
Twelve different Bruins scored, paced by Jrue Holiday’s 20 points on a perfect 8/8 shooting night. In what clearly amounted to be their best game of the season, the Bruins shot a blistering 65.4% from the field and 47.4% from beyond the arc to assure the victory. If UCLA is going to win this game though, it will be on the strength of its defense, which ranks 22nd in the country, allowing just 57.2 points per game.
Texas has had a bit of an easier time this season than UCLA has. Save a narrow 81-80 loss to Notre Dame on November 25th, the Longhorns have been unstoppable, averaging outscoring their other five opponents by 21 points per game. The last outing wasn’t a thing of beauty for their basketball bettors, though. Five Horns reached double digits against Rice, but the 77-56 final wasn’t enough to cover the hefty 26-point spread.
G Justin Mason filled up the stat sheet nicely, as he poured in a team-high 14 points to go with six boards, four assists, and three steals. It was the second straight relatively quiet game for superstar G AJ Abrams, who has only scored a total of 19 points in his L/2 games. He averaged 19 points per game in his first four, and will likely need to be lights out for the Longhorns to pick up a huge victory on Thursday.
Oddsmakers have installed the host Longhorns as 6-point favorites, with the ‘total’ coming in at 134.
Will the Bruins avenge the home defeat they suffered a year ago to the Horns, or will Texas keep its 13 game home winning streak intact?
