Thursday night college basketball and we will see the California Golden Bears travel to the McKale Center to take on the Arizona Wildcats. The game has a start time of 9:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN. Current Vegas betting odds have the Wildcats listed as 19 point favorites, while the total is set at 133. 

Analysis:  The California Golden Bears snapped their 3 game losing streak on Sunday with a big 73-56 home win over Oregon State. The Bears are now 17-12 overall and 11-7 at home but still just 7-9 in the Pac-12. Cal has gone 4-1 ATS in their last 5 road games, but just 9-21 ATS in their last 30 vs. the Pac-12. The Bears have not been a very good offensive team this year, ranking 195th in scoring (66.7 ppg), 139th in shooting (44.1%), 128th in 3 point shooting (35.3%) and 302nd in FT shooting (65.2%). Defensively the Bears have been average this year, ranking 157th in points allowed (66.1 ppg), 113th in defensive FG% (41.7%) and 136th in 3 point defense (33.3%). 

The Arizona Wildcats come in having won 6 in a row, including a hard fought easy 63-57 road win over Utah on Saturday, which gave the Wildcats at least a share of the Pac-12 Title. The Wildcats are now 26-3 overall including 14-2 in the Pac-12. The Cats have gone 10-2 ATS in their last 12 vs. the Pac-12 and 8-2 ATS in their last 10 home games. The Wildcats have been a very good offensive team this year, ranking 28th in scoring (75.4 ppg), 10th in shooting (48.6%), 139th in 3 point shooting (35.1%) and 148th in FT shooting (69.7%). Defensively the Wildcats have been very good this year, ranking 17th in points allowed (58.5 ppg), 32nd in defensive FG% (39.3%) and 86th in 3 point defense (32.4%).

Pick: Going with the Under here. The Arizona defense has been great all year, but even better down the stretch as they have allowed just 54.8 ppg on 36% shooting in their last 5 games. This team will not give up a whole lot, while California has played decent defense on the road, allowing 69 ppg on just 41.3% away from home this year. 69 ppg allowed isn't great, but if they can hold Arizona to 75 or less then we will be golden here as I just don't see more than 55 points from the Cal Bears here. I will call for a 73-54 final in this one. 

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