California vs Virginia Prediction 1/8/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The Virginia Cavaliers and the California Golden Bears meet Wednesday in college basketball action from Haas Pavilion. Here’s a California vs Virginia prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best California vs Virginia pick.

Virginia Cavaliers Betting Preview

The Cavs got their year started on a nice run, taking out Campbell, Coppin State, and Villanova in their first three games of the season. Consecutive losses against tough opponents in Tennessee and Saint John’s came after that, then consecutive wins over Manhattan and Holy Cross. Virginia would then hit the skids on a 1-3 stretch. The lone victory in that time was over Bethune-Cookman. Otherwise, it was losses versus Florida, SMU, and Memphis. Virginia got back on track with victories over American University and NC State in their next two outings but then lost to Louisville over the weekend for an 8-6 overall record so far this year.

In the Louisville game on Saturday, the Cavs had trouble finding points for most of the game. After a 32-27 first half, Virginia fell behind even further from there on a 38-23 run for a 70-50 blowout defeat. Leading the team in scoring was Andrew Rhode with his 16 points, four rebounds and three assists with three steals. Isaac McKneely added 13 points, three rebounds, and four assists, while Elijah Saunders had 12 points with one rebound. Ishan Sharma posted all of the team’s bench points—just two—alongside two assists in 17 minutes of work.

California Golden Bears Betting Preview

Over on the California side, they managed a nice start out of the gate, but things haven’t gone so well since then. The Bears lost to only Vanderbilt in their first seven outings. Otherwise, it was wins over Cal State Bakersfield, Cal Poly, USC, Air Force, Sac State, and Mercyhurst. Since then the Bears are only 1-6 over the last seven outings. The lone win came versus Northwestern State. Otherwise, it’s been losses to Missouri, Stanford, Cornell, San Diego State, Pittsburgh, and Clemson in that time for a 7-7 overall run in a .500 campaign so far.

Matched up against Clemson in their last outing on Saturday, the Golden Bears managed a 39-36 deficit by halftime. California was outpaced 41-32 the rest of the way, however, resulting in an 80-68 defeat by the game’s end. Leading the team in scoring was Andrej Stojakovic with 30 points and two boards. Jovan Blacksher added 15 points, two boards, and one assist. Topping the team off the bench was Jeremiah Wilkinson with 11 points, two boards, and one assist.

Why the California Golden Bears will win

• California has won seven of its last eight night games at Haas Pavilion.
• Virginia has lost three of its last four games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.
• Virginia has lost the first half in four of its last five games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Why the Virginia Cavaliers will win

• California has lost each of its last eight games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.
• Virginia has won each of its last four night games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• California has lost the first half in each of its last three night games.

California vs Virginia Prediction

I’ll just stay with Virginia here. The Cavs could use a nice bounce-back showing after a limp run on both sides of the floor versus a pretty good Louisiana team in their last game, though. Fortunately, this is a good spot to get it. In any case, Virginia shot a tepid 37 percent from the field in that loss to the Cardinals, alongside just 19.2 percent from 3-point range and a lopsided 42-25 rebounding deficit. Virginia isn’t the highest-scoring team in the world this year—they’re more of a defensive, methodical team. That said, the Cavs have been below 64 points in five of the last six games.

As for California, they were highly permissive on defense versus Clemson in their last outing. The Golden Bears gave up a whopping 62 percent shooting from the field and 44.4 percent (8-of-18) from outside along with a 32-22 rebounding deficit in that loss. The good news is that the Bears have scored well overall with 68 or more points in 13 of 14 games. The bad news is that they’re giving up a ton on the other side—71 or more in six of the last seven (all six were losses. It’s going to be even tougher finding points here.