Michigan vs Kentucky 12/4/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Michigan Wolverines and the Kentucky Wildcats meet in college basketball action from the O2 Arena on Sunday.

The Michigan Wolverines will be out to rebound from a 70-68 loss to Virginia in their last game. Hunter Dickinson leads the Wolverines in scoring and rebounding with 19.1 PPG and 9.1 RPG while Jett Howard has 15.1 PPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Michigan so far this season. Kobe Bufkin’s also chipping in 9.4 PPG with 4.1 RPG and a team-high 2.9 APG to lead the Wolverines in the assist department up to this point in the year. As a team, Michigan is averaging 76 PPG on 45.6% shooting from the field, 32.9% from three and 67.9% from the foul line this season.

The Kentucky Wildcats will try to build on back-to-back wins after a 60-41 win over Bellarmine last time out. Antonio Reeves leads the Wildcats in scoring with 14.9 PPG while Oscar Tshiebwe has 14.4 PPG with a team-high 13.4 RPG to lead the Wildcats on the glass by averaging a double-double per game. Jacob Toppin has 12.7 PPg with 7.1 RPG while Cason Wallace has 10.6 PPG and CJ Fredrick has 10.3 PPG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Kentucky so far this season. Sahvir Wheeler also has 8.5 PPG with a team-high 7.3 APG to lead the Wildcats In assists as well this season. As a team, Kentucky is averaging 83.3 PPG on 46.5% shooting from the field, 37.4% from three and 71% from the foul line this season.

Michigan is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games following a loss and 34-15-2 ATS in their last 51 neutral site games while the over is 23-11 in their last 34 games overall. Kentucky is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games following a win and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 7-1 in their last 8 neutral site games.

I get the reasoning for backing either side in this game as these overseas travel spots can be tricky. However, just analyzing it on the level, the Wolverines have a solid big in Hunter Dickinson, but he’s cancelled out by Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe, and then after the bigs, I just feel Kentucky has the greater depth. Both have had issues in these step up spots, maybe more so Kentucky, but I just feel that the depth of Kentucky and the top end talent of the Wildcats win out here and the Wildcats win by double-digits so I’ll lay the points with Kentucky here.