California Golden Bears (3-22) vs. USC Trojans (17-8)
February 16, 2023 10:00 pm EDT
The Line: USC Trojans -15.5 / California Golden Bears +15.5; Over/Under: +130.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Cal Golden Bears and the USC Trojans meet in college basketball action from the Galen Center on Thursday night. Let’s dive into the odds, injuries, matchup history and make a prediction for this game.
Odds
USC is listed as a 15.5-point home favorite with a ML price of -1400. The total for this game is set at 130.5 points.
Injuries
For Cal, Josh, Ragsdale, Devin Askew, Jarred Hyder and Jalen Celestine are all out for the season with various injuries while USC has Josh Morgan still listed as out indefinitely with an ankle injury and Reese Dixon-Waters is questionable for this game with a lower body injury.
Matchup History
USC’s 66-51 win over Cal back on November 30th, 2022, made it nine straight wins for the Trojans in this head-to-head matchup.
Trends
Cal is 1-7 ATS in their last 8 Thursday games and 6-1 ATS in their last 7 road games against a team with a home winning percentage above .600 while the under is 5-1 in their last 6 road games. USC is 6-1 ATS in their last 7 home games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400 while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record.
Pick
I’m backing USC here. Cal is just having next to nothing go right for them and they now have four guards out for the season including top-scorer Devin Askew. Cal’s depth wasn’t very good to begin with and neither was their offensive potential, but you’ve really seen it take a hit in a lot of their recent outings. USC is the better team by a wide margin in this game and I think we see exactly why here. Give me the Trojans laying the points.
