Thursday night College Basketball and we will see the Arizona Wildcats travel to Maples Pavilion to take on the Stanford Cardinal. The game has a start time of 9:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN 2. Current Vegas betting odds have Arizona listed as 4 point favorites, while the total is set at 130.5.
Analysis: The Arizona Wildcats come in at 16-2 in the year overall and have won 4 of their last 5 games. Arizona has gone 4-1 in Pac-12 play so far this year, while they have gone just 2-2 in their overall true road games. Arizona is 9-4 ATS in their last 13 Thursday games, but just 1-5 ATS in their last 6 road games vs. a team with a winning home record. The Wildcats have been a very solid offensive team this year, ranking 44th in scoring (74.3 ppg), 16th in shooting (48.9%), 121st in 3 point shooting (35.7%) and 224th in FT shooting (67.4%). Defensively the Cats have been very solid this year, ranking 25th in points allowed (58.8 ppg), 62nd in defensive FG% (39.6%) and 147th in 3 point defense (33.0%).
The Stanford Cardinal has won 3 in a row and 7 of their last 8 games. Overall Stanford is 13-4, which includes marks of 9-0 at home and 4-1 within the Pac 12. The dog is 22-8 ATS the last in the series, while the Cardinal are 5-1-1 ATS in their last 7 games following a S.U. win, but they are also just 3-7-2 ATS in their last 12 vs. Pacific-12. Stanford has been a good offensive team this year, ranking 66th in scoring (73.1 ppg), 158th in shooting (43.8%), 16th in 3 point shooting (40.1%) and 132nd in FT shooting (70.2%). Defensively the Cardinal has been decent, as they come in ranked 125th in points allowed (63.6 ppg), 102nd in defensive FG% (40.7%) and 282nd in 3 point defense (36.2%).
Pick: I will be going with the Under in this game. Both of these teams have played solid defense this year and neither is really an up tempo team, which should all keep the scoring down. Arizona has been one of the better defensive teams all year, allowing just 58.8 ppg overall and 61.5 ppg on the road, plus in their last 5 games they have allowed just 54.8 ppg. Stanford has also played defense very good this year as they have allowed just 63/8 ppg overall and just 54.9 ppg at home. Arizona is not a great offensive team and they come in averaging just 65.8 ppg on the road, while their last 3 overall they have scored just 64.3 ppg. This is a big game in the Pac-12 and should also be tight throughout meaning we will get allot of walking the ball up the court. Both teams are locked in defensively and that should prevent either team from reaching 65 points. 64-60 sounds about right for this one.
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