California vs Arizona 1/23/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Arizona Wildcats and the California Golden Bears meet Sunday in college basketball action from Haas Pavilion. Arizona is currently 15-1 on the year. The Wildcats are coming off a win over Stanford. As for California, they’re sitting at 9-9 and lost to Washington State in their last outing. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Arizona got off to a great start this year, hitting an 11-0 run out of the gate. The Wildcats’ lone blemish was a December 22 loss to Tennessee. Since then it’s been wins over Washington, Colorado, Utah and Stanford in succession. 

In the Stanford game Thursday, the Wildcats didn’t have a lot of trouble. Arizona jumped out to a 42-31 halftime lead, then hit a 43-26 run from there for an 85-57 win. Oumar Ballo led the way on 21 points with six rebounds, and Bennedict Mathurin chipped in 13 points. 

Over on the California side, they posted a 9-5 start this year over 14 games. The Bears lost to UCSD, UNLV, Florida, Seton Hall and Utah in that time. Cal has lost their last four to USC, UCLA, Washington and Washington State since then. 

In the matchup versus Washington State last weekend, the Bears had a two-point lead at halftime. California couldn’t keep up the pace however and lost 65-57. Jordan Shepherd was the team’s leading scorer on 17 points with two boards and two assists. 

The Bears are 20-8 ATS in their last 28 Sunday games and 26-10 ATS in their last 36 at home. California is 10-3 ATS in their last 13 overall.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats are 4-1 ATS in their last five road games and 6-2 ATS in their last eight Sunday games. Arizona is 4-1-1 ATS in their last six after an ATS win. 

PICK: I’m going to stay with Arizona, even though it’s a pretty thick line. The Wildcats have had no issues scoring this year so far. They’ve hit 73 or more points in each game, and 82 or more in three of their last four. Arizona shot a nice 55.4 percent from the floor with 39 rebounds and 20 assists in their recent win over Stanford. 

As for California, they’ve had some rough matchups lately and have been at 63 or fewer points in each of their last four (57 or fewer in each of the last three as well). It’s going to take a monumental effort to slow down a hot Arizona team, and I don’t think California will be able to keep up for long.