NCAA basketball on Friday night and it is the semifinals of the Pac 12 Tournament. In this matchup we will see the Stanford Cardinals take on the UCLA Bruins at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The game has a start time of 11:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on Fox Sports 1. Vegas odds have the Bruins listed as 3 point favorites, while the total sits at 149.
Stat Pack: The Bruins took out the Oregon Ducks by 19 points to reach this semifinal game. The win moved the Bruins to 24-8 on the year. The Bruins are a high scoring offense that ranks 11th in scoring (82.0 ppg), 15th in shooting overall (48.8%), 14th in 3 point shooting (39.6%) and 20th in free throw shooting (74.8%). Jordan Adams leads the offense with 17.5 ppg, while Kyle Anderson (14.8 ppg), Norman Powell (10.8 ppg) and Zach Lavine (10.6 ppg) also average in double figures for the Bruins. Anderson leads the team in rebounds (8.7 rpg), while also dishing out 205 assists, which leads the team as well. Defensively the Bruins have a few issues as they allow 71.1 ppg (209th) on 42.9% shooting (137th). This is a very dangerous teams that seems to be playing very well right now.
The Stanford Cardinal had a very easy win over Arizona state last night to get to this game. The win now has Stanford at 21-11 on the year and they now have won 3 in a row. The Cardinal is a solid offensive team that averages 74 ppg (89th) on 46.6% shooting overall (61st) and 37.4% from long range (62nd). The offense is led by Chasson Randle, who averages 19 ppg on 48.6% shooting overall and 40.1% from long range. Dwight Powell is second on the team in both scoring (14.2 ppg) and rebounding (7.0 rpg), while Anthony Brown is 3rd in scoring at 13.3 ppg. Josh Huestis leads the team in rebounding (8.5 rpg), while also scoring 11.5 ppg, to rank 4th on the team. The Cardinal are a decent team defensively as they come in allowing just 68.2 ppg on 41.7% shooting, which is 85th in the nation.
Pick: Going with UCLA here. Stanford has a bit better defense, but UCLA gets a huge edge on the offensive end of the floor and that is where this game will be won. I just don't see Stanford coming up with enough points to keep this one close. UCLA had a bad loss at the end of the year to Washington State, but they responded by blowing out Oregon and they will be taking on a Stanford team that is just 1-7 ATS the last 8 in the series.
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