UCLA vs Sacramento State 11/7/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Sacramento State Hornets and the UCLA Bruins meet in a college basketball matchup from Pauley Pavilion on Monday night.

The Sacramento State Hornets will try to bounce back from a disappointing 2021-22 season, finishing at 11-18 overall, including a 6-14 mark in Big Sky conference play. The Hornets were the 8-seed in the Big Sky tournament, taking out Idaho before falling to top-seeded Montana State in the tournament quarterfinals, ending their season. The Hornets did lose their top player from last year in Bryce Fowler (19 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 4 APG) as well as William Fitzpatrick (9.8 PPG) and Cameron Wilbon (9.1 PPG, 5.1 RPG) from last year’s group. The Hornets did hit the transfer portal hard though, bringing in some solid names like Callum McRae (10.8 PPG, 7.9 RPG) from UC-Riverside as well as Hunter Marks (11.7 PPG, 4.4 RPG) from Hartford to help the returning Zach Chappell (11;6 PPG) and Cameron Wilbon (9.1 PPG) off of the bench for the Hornets this season.

The UCLA Bruins will try to build on their solid 27-8 record in 2021-22, including a 15-5 mark in Pac-12 conference play. The Bruins got the 2-seed in the Pac-12 tournament, upending Washington State and USC before falling to Arizona in the conference championship game. The Bruins received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as a 4-seed, taking out Akron and Saint Mary’s before falling to runner-up North Carolina in the sweet 16. The Bruins do lose the services of Johnny Juzang (15.6 PPG, 4.7 RPG) and Jules Bernard (12.8 PPG, 4.7 RPG), but bring back Tyger Campbell (11.9 PPG, 4.3 APG) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (13.9 PPG, 5.7 RPG as well as bringing in a pair of highly-touted recruits in Adam Bona in the frontcourt and Amari Bailey in the backcourt for UCLA this season.

Sacramento State is 6-1-1 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 road games while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. UCLA is 9-3-1 ATS in their last 13 home games.

I get the case to be made for Sacramento State as this UCLA team will likely be trying to figure stuff out on the fly with some young pieces coming in. However, UCLA’s still the far better team here and Sacramento State struggled in their step up spots against the Pac-12 last year, losing by 30+ points each time. I see nothing different in this one, so give me the Bruins laying the points.