The Long Beach State 49ers and the Cal State Northridge Matadors close out a full day of college basketball on Saturday night in a Big West match up.

The Long Beach State 49ers are leveraging a tough early season out of conference schedule into being a well prepared team in conference play as Dan Monson’s team is marching through the competition. LBSU is 9-0 in Big West play, 8-0 at home this season, and comfortably in first place in the conference standings. Casper Ware is averaging 16.8 points, Larry Anderson is averaging 15.2 points and 5.0 rebounds, T.J. Robinson is averaging 12.1 points and 10.2 rebounds, James Ennis is averaging 10.3 points. As a team the 49ers are averaging 73.4 points and they are shooting 47.3 percent while defensively they are allowing 64.8 points and their opposition is shooting 43 percent. Long Beach State will be in the NCAA Tournament when March Madness rolls around and they won’t be a team others look forward to playing.

The Cal State Northridge Matadors have been suffering this season and it doesn’t appear to be getting any better for Bobby Braswell’s team. CSUN is 2-7 in the Big West, 3-8 on the road this year, and they are in eighth place in the conference standings. Stephan Hicks is averaging 16.3 points and 7.0 rebounds, Josh Greene is averaging 10.1 points, and Aqeel Quinn is averaging 8.5 points. As a team Cal State Northridge is averaging 67.2 points and they are shooting 37.4 percent while defensively they are allowing 74.9 points and their opposition is shooting 46.5 percent. CSUN are one of the worst teams in the nation this year.

Long Beach State is 1-4 against the spread in their last five games following a game which they didn’t cover, 4-1 against the spread in their last five games against CSUN, and 4-0 against the spread in their last four home games against CSUN. Cal State Northridge is 5-2 against the spread against a team with a winning record, 1-5 against the spread following a double digit home loss, and 13-6 against the spread in their last 19 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600. The home team has covered ion seven of the last nine meetings of these two.

I smell a blowout here and while this isn’t a premium pick, it sure could be as this one is an outright stomping and could be the biggest blowout of the day.