UC Riverside vs UC-Santa Barbara 2/26/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos and the UC Riverside Highlanders meet Saturday in college basketball action from UC Riverside Student Recreation Center. UC Santa Barbara is coming off a matchup versus UC Davis on Thursday. In that one the Gauchos managed a seven-point win. As for UC Riverside, they played Cal State Northridge in their Thursday game. The Highlanders ended up winning in blowout fashion. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

UC Santa Barbara was only able to play two games (both losses) between December 30 and January 25, and the team came out of it with a 7-7 record. After that came a 5-3 run for the Gauchos with wins over CSUN, UCSD, CSUB, Cal Poly and Long Beach State. 

On Thursday versus UC Davis, the Gauchos were down by six at halftime but fought back to force overtime. After the extra period, UC Santa Barbara had a 76-69 victory. Ajay Mitchell posted 31 points, and Amadou Sow doubled on 17 points and 11 boards. 

Over on the Highlanders’ side, they came into February on a 11-6 season run. The Highlanders would go 3-3 over their next six games, losing to UC Davis, UC Irvine and UC San Diego alongside wins over Hawaii, CSU Bakersfield and Cal Poly. 

Matched up against CSU Northridge on Thursday, UC Riverside posted a 47-27 run in the first half and a 32-30 advantage from there in a 79-57 blowout win. Dragan Elkaz posted 15 points, and Callum McRae doubled up on 14 points and 13 boards. 

The Highlanders are 4-0 ATS in their last four at home and 2-5 ATS in the last seven after an ATS win. The over is 4-0 in UC Riverside’s last four overall.
Meanwhile, the Gauchos are 3-8 ATS in their last 11 road games and 5-2 ATS in their last seven overall. The over is 8-3 in UCSB’s last 11 road games. 

PICK: I’m going to go with UC Santa Barbara. I could probably go either way in this one, though; we should have a fun matchup. The Gauchos have looked pretty solid over this 5-1 stretch; they’ve hit 69 or more points in each of their five wins during that time. As for UC Riverside, they’ve scored 78 or more in three straight games so we could have a shootout on our hands here. I like this one to be a competitive matchup with UC Santa Barbara eking out a tight cover/win.