The Kentucky Wildcats and the Gonzaga Bulldogs meet in college basketball action from the Spokane Arena on Sunday night.
The Kentucky Wildcats will be out to build on their 106-63 win over South Carolina State last time out. CJ Fredrick, Oscar Tshiebwe and Antonio Reeves each have a team-high 14 PPG, with Tshiebwe posting 12.5 RPG. Cason Wallace has 12.3 PPG with 4.5 RPG and Sahvir Wheeler has 11 PPG with a team-high 9.7 APG to lead the Wildcats in the assist department this season. Jacob Toppin has 10.3 PPG with a team-high 8 RPG to lead the Wildcats in rebounding to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Kentucky up to this point in the year. As a team, Kentucky is averaging 88.8 PPG on 49% shooting from the field, 42.4% from three and 66.7% from the foul line this season.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs will try to bounce back from a 93-74 loss to Texas in their last game. Drew Timme leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 20.7 PPG and 8 RPG while Julian Strawther has 14 PPG and 6.7 RPG of his own as the only other double-digit scorer for Gonzaga up to this point in the year. Rasir Bolton has 9.7 PPG and Malachi Smith has 9 PPG and 4 RPG while Anton Watson has a team-high 2.7 APG as well this year. As a team, Gonzaga is averaging 80.7 PPG on 52.3% shooting from the field, 36% from three and 71.2% from the foul line this season.
Kentucky is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 neutral site games and 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games after scoring 100 points or more in the previous game while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 neutral site games. Gonzaga is 0-5-1 ATs in their last 6 neutral site games and 1-8-2 ATS in their last 11 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall.
I get the reasoning for Gonzaga being favored here, but to be honest, I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen from the Zags, scraping by Michigan State and losing to Texas on the road. Granted, Texas is a tough place to go on the road and win, but this Zags team feels like a really good team, and not a great team. Kentucky keeps finding ways to reload and Oscar Tshiebwe can negate Gonzaga’s biggest weapon in Drew Timme. I’ll side with the Wildcats and the free bucket.