California Golden Bears (8-13) vs. Arizona State Sun Devils (11-10)
February 3, 2024 3:00 pm EDT
The Line: Arizona State Sun Devils -2 ; Over/Under: -
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The California Golden Bears and the Arizona State Sun Devils meet Saturday in college basketball action from ASU Wells Fargo Arena. California just finished up a Thursday game versus Arizona. In that one the Bears slipped to 8-13 with a blowout loss. As for Arizona State, they played Stanford in their last game. The 11-10 Sun Devils ended up losing that game as well. Let’s get into our California vs. Arizona State prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
California Golden Bears
The Golden Bears were only able to win four of their first 14 games, taking losses to Pacific, Montana State, UTEP, Tulane, San Diego State, Butler, Ole Miss, Arizona, Arizona State and USC. A 4-2 run came after that with wins over UCLA, Colorado, Washington State and Stanford.
In the Thursday matchup versus Arizona, the Golden Bears were drilled 48-28 in the first half alone. California didn’t get any closer on a 43-37 second half and lost in a blowout 91-65. Leading the team in scoring was Jalen Celestine with 13 points and two rebounds in the losing effort.
Arizona State Sun Devils
Over on the Arizona State side, they lost five of their first 15 games this year versus Mississippi State, BYU, San Diego, TCU and Northwestern. The Sun Devils would go just 1-4 over the next five however, losing to Washington, UCLA, Oregon and Oregon State around a win over USC.
Matched up against Stanford on Thursday, the Sun Devils went into the break with a 33-29 edge. Arizona State had a rough second half on a 42-29 deficit and lost 71-62 in a tough outcome. Jose Perez led the way on 14 points with six assists and three rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE CALIFORNIA VS ARIZONA STATE PREDICTION
I’ll stick with Arizona State. Both these teams are coming off rough losses though, and both could use good showings here. The Sun Devils shot just 38.3 percent and lost the rebounding battle 45-33 in their loss to Stanford on Thursday. That makes three straight losses for Arizona State, with fewer than 63 points scored in two of those.
These teams last met up on New Year’s Eve in a 71-69 road win for Arizona State. Neither team shot well (both below 39 percent) and there were 27 combined turnovers in a sloppy game. You could make a case for Cal taking the cover/win in the rematch, but with the rough outing Thursday (even against a great Arizona team), I’m not so high on the Bears right now.
