UC-Santa Barbara vs UC Riverside 1/20/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The UC Riverside Highlanders and the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos meet Thursday in college basketball action from UCSB Events Center. UC Riverside is 9-5 on the year so far. The Highlanders are coming off a win over CSU Bakersfield. As for UC Santa Barbara, they’re sitting at 7-7 and lost to CSU Fullerton in their last outing. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

UC Riverside posted a 7-4 record over their first 11 games, losing to San Diego State, San Diego, Saint Mary’s and Oregon in that time. After a loss to UC Irvine, the Highlanders bounced back with wins over Cal Poly and CSU Bakersfield. 

In the CSU Bakersfield matchup Saturday, the Highlanders turned a one-point halftime deficit into a 65-64 win with 38 second-half points. Leading the team in scoring was Dominick Pickett with 18 points and five rebounds. 

Over on the UC Santa Barbara side, they also went 7-4 over their first 11 games this year. The losses were to Washington State, UT Arlington, Saint Mary’s and Pacific. Since then it’s been three straight losses to UC San Diego, Long Beach State and CSU Fullerton.

Matched up against CSU Fullerton on Saturday, the Gauchos kept the pace in the first half but were outscored 40-34 from there in a 79-73 loss. Cole Anderson led UC Santa Barbara on 21 bench points with one steal in 17 minutes of action. 

The Gauchos are 0-7 ATS in their last seven overall and 0-4 ATS in their last four Thursday games. The over is 5-2-1 in UC Santa Barbara’s last eight overall.
Meanwhile, the Highlanders are 4-9 ATS in their last 13 road games and 5-0 ATS in their last five Thursday games. UC Riverside is 4-1 ATS in their last five after an ATS loss. 

PICK: I’m going to take a stab on UC Santa Barbara, but probably not going near this one. Neither of these teams has been great lately and it’s tough telling what will happen. In any case, the Gauchos have scored fairly well over their last six games, with 71 or more points in four of them. UCSB hasn’t ben consistent on offense at all this year, but they can score when the matchup is right. UC Riverside has been at 65 points or below in each of the last four games, so they’re going to want to keep the pace slow here.