Louisville vs California Prediction 3/5/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The California Golden Bears and the Louisville Cardinals meet Wednesday in college basketball action from KFC Yum! Center. Here’s a Louisville vs California prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Louisville vs California pick.

California Golden Bears Betting Preview

California has had a couple of good runs in the record column overall this year, but not enough to put them above the .500 mark so far. The Golden Bears went 6-1 over their first seven games, then took losses to Missouri, Stanford, Cornell, San Diego State, Pitt, and Clemson in the next seven. A 5-4 run came next with losses to Virginia Tech, North Carolina, SMU, and Syracuse among wins over Virginia, NC State, Florida State, Miami, and NC State. Cal would then lose versus Wake Forest, Duke, Georgia Tech, Stanford, and SMU before another victory over Boston College. In total that gives California a 13-16 overall run across 29 games so far.

In the Boston College matchup over the weekend, the Golden Bears came out of the break with a 42-31 advantage. California kept the pace from there on a 40-40 run and took the win 82-71 in the end. Mady Sissoko was the team’s leading scorer, notching a double-double on 21 points with 15 rebounds and one steal in 29 minutes of action. Jovan Blacksher added 18 points with four assists and one rebound, while Andrej Stojakovic posted 15 points with five rebounds and four blocks in 34 minutes on the court during the victory.

Louisville Cardinals Betting Preview

Over on the Louisville side, they began their year on a pretty choppy run but since mid-December things have gone much better in the win column. The Cardinals limped to a 6-5 record across their first 11 outings of the season, then hit a winning streak over Florida State, Eastern Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia, SMU, and Wake Forest. Following a loss to Georgia Tech on the road on February 1, Louisville began another win streak. Those victories came courtesy of Boston College, Miami, NC State, Notre Dame, Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Pittsburgh. In total that gives the Cardinals a 23-6 overall run through 29 games so far this year.

Matched up against Pitt in the Saturday game, the Cardinals held a 39-33 edge by halftime. Louisville kept it up with a 40-35 run the rest of the way, eventually taking the win 79-68. Chucky Hepburn was the team’s leading scorer, pouring in 37 points with four rebounds, four assists, and two steals in 35 minutes. Terrence Edwards added 23 points with seven boards and one assist in 32 minutes, while Reyne Smith chipped in eight points with three rebounds in 35 minutes on the floor.

Why the Louisville Cardinals will win

• California has lost each of its last 20 games against AP-ranked opponents.
• Louisville has won each of its last 12 home games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• Louisville has won the first half in each of its last 19 games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Louisville vs California Prediction

I’ll stick with Louisville here. The Cardinals are coming off something of an odd win over Pitt, posting just three bench points along the way. Louisville got the lion’s share of the production from just two players (Hepburn and Edwards), who combined for a whopping 60 of the team’s 79 points. It worked, though: Louisville shot a nice 51.1 percent from the field and 52.4 percent (11-of-21) from 3-point range. The 12 turnovers for 17 Panthers points were just about the only statistical blemish. In any case, that makes seven straight wins for Louisville, with 71 or more points scored in each of those outings.

As for Cal, they got past a middling Boston College team pretty easily in their last appearance, shooting 49.2 percent from the field with a 40-36 rebounding edge. The Bears did have 13 turnovers for 14 Eagles points but did pretty well outside of that. The loss stops the losing streak at five games, but California does have a couple of tricky road matchups left on the schedule. I don’t think they’ll get too close in this one.