The California Golden Bears and the Arizona State Sun Devils meet Thursday in college basketball action from ASU Wells Fargo Arena. California is 12-17 on the year so far. The Bears beat Stanford in their last game. As for Arizona State, they’re sitting at 12-16 and coming off a win over Utah. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
California started off the year at a reasonable 9-5 overall, then hit an ugly 10-game losing streak in January/February. The Bears are 3-2 since then with losses to Colorado and Utah amid wins over Oregon State, Oregon and Stanford.
In the Stanford game on Saturday, the Bears got off to a dominant 35-12 lead by halftime. California scored just 18 points in the second half but still won 53-39. Tops in scoring was Jordan Shepherd on 28 points and three rebounds.
Over on the Arizona State side, their year started at 5-6 before a 2-9 run from December into February. The Sun Devils rebounded with a 5-1 stretch after that, taking wins over Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Colorado and Utah.
Matched up against Utah back on Saturday, the Sun Devils were up 33-30 at the break. Arizona State was outscored 30-31 afterward but took the win 63-61. Jay Heath was the lead scorer on 20 points with three rebounds.
The Sun Devils are 4-1 ATS in their last five home games and 5-1 ATS in their last six overall. Arizona State is 4-1 ATS in their last five Thursday games.
Meanwhile, the Bears are 0-4 ATS in the last four Thursday games and 5-1 ATS in their last six overall. The over is 6-0 in California’s last six Thursday games.
PICK: I’m going to stick with Arizona State. The Sun Devils have done pretty well over this 5-1 run; they’ve hit 73 or more points in three of the last five games as well. That’s good news for Arizona State; they were routinely scoring in the 50s against some of the tougher conference teams during that recent 2-9 run.
That said, the last time these teams met up California secured a dominant home win 74-50 back on January 2. I’d like to think that Arizona State has improved since then and will be better equipped at home this time.