College Basketball Picks

Santa Clara vs Cal State-Fullerton College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 11/9/2021

Cal State-Fullerton Titans (0-0) vs. Santa Clara Broncos (0-0)
November 9, 2021 9:00 pm EDT
The Line: Santa Clara Broncos -8.5 / Cal State-Fullerton Titans +8.5; Over/Under: -152.5
(Get latest betting odds)

The CSU-Fullerton Titans and the Santa Clara Broncos meet in college basketball action from the Leavey Center on Tuesday night.

The CSU-Fullerton Titans will come into this season looking to rebound from a disappointing 2020-21 season, finishing the year at 6-10 overall including 5-7 in conference play which earned the Titans the #7 seed in the conference tournament. Their stay in the Big West tournament was short-lived though, as they were bounced in the first round by Cal Poly. They bring back two key pieces from the team that was rather competitive given the amount of injuries and lack of competition prior to conference play, as Tray Maddox Jr. is back after logging 15.9 PPG and 2.3 APG last season while Dante Maddox Jr. (no relation), Latrell Wrightsell Jr., Tory San Antonio and Jalen Harris can all play and run the point or the off ball guard while transfers like EJ Anosike, Ibrahim Famouke Doumbia and Lado Laku will give the titans some size inside to compliment the lineup that shot the 14th-best 3-point percentage in the country last season. Only time will tell if the Titan faithful have reason for optimism this season.

The Santa Clara Broncos will look to be competitive once again in 2020-21 after Herb Sendek’s boys went 12-8 overall including 4-5 in conference play to finish with the #7 seed in the WCC tournament. The Broncos took down Portland and upset Pacific before falling to Pepperdine in the third round of the WCC tournament. The Broncos bring back leading scorer and rebounder Josip Vrankic, who had 15.2 PPG and 8.2 RPG last year and showed signs of being Santa Clara’s version of Nikola Jokic. Jalen Williams and Keshawn Justice are also back for the Broncos after each averaged double-digits in scoring last season as well as respectable rebounding numbers. PJ Pipes transfers in from Green Bay and is expected to slot into the starting lineup right away, giving Santa Clara a true ball-handling point guard that they didn’t really have last season. Pipes put up 14.5 PPG and 3 APG for the Phoenix last season. Gonzaga, BYU and Saint Mary’s continue to lead the pack of the WCC, but coach Sendek’s best roster of his tenure so far will make life difficult for the conference this season and could make some noise come tournament time.

CSU-Fullerton is 3-8 ATS in their last 11 road games and 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games overall while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games as a road underdog. Santa Clara is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 home games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games as a favorite while the over is 8-2 in their last 10 Tuesday games.

I went back and forth on this game, but I’m going to side with the Broncos here. CSU-Fullerton has a lot of talent, but there’s also a lot of transfers coming in as well so it’ll take time to mesh. Santa Clara might be as good as they’ve been since the Steve Nash era in the mid-1990s, and I think they open the season with a double-digit win. I’ll lay the points with Santa Clara here.

Chris Ruffolo's Free Pick: Santa Clara -8.5

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Chris Ruffolo

Chris joined the Sports Chat Place team in August 2016 and has a proven system that combines multiple analytical and situational statistics and trends to give out thousands of winning picks over the last three years with winning records across all of the top leagues, Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg

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