UC Irvine vs Harvard 12/20/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Harvard Crimson and the UC Irvine Anteaters meet Tuesday in college basketball action from Bren Events Center. Harvard is 7-4 overall this year. The Crimson lost to Howard in their last game. As for UC Irvine, they’re 7-4 as well and fresh off a loss to Santa Clara. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Harvard has managed wins over Morehouse, Elon, Northeastern, Siena, Loyola IL, Holy Cross and Tufts this year. Otherwise the losses have come to Louisiana, Fordham, UMass and Howard. In the Howard matchup on Sunday,

Harvard had a 30-30 tie going into the second half. The Crimson were outscored 36-24 after the break in a 66-54 loss. Shy Odom managed 18 points and Jelani Williams added 13 points. 

Over on the UC Irvine side, their wins have been versus Chapman, Oregon, LMU, Life Pacific, Nicholls State, New Mexico State, and South Dakota. The losses were to Pepperdine, San Diego State, Fresno State and Santa Clara. 

UC Irvine managed to take a 41-37 edge over Santa Clara at halftime in their matchup back on Thursday. The Anteaters were outscored 49-33 from there and lost 86-74. Dawson Baker and Justin Hohn each scored a team-high 14 points.

PICK: I’ll probably stay with UC Irvine. This should be an interesting matchup, though; both teams are coming off losses and should be competitive against each other. UC Irvine is just 1-3 over their last four games, however they’ve generally been competitive during that quartet. UC Irvine is still scoring well, with 69 or more points in three of their last four games. As for Harvard, they’re fresh off a loss to a Howard team they could have beaten. The Crimson have hit 68 or more points in three of their last four games, going 2-2 in that stretch. Overall I still like UC Irvine to manage a cover—should be a close game, though.