Utah State vs UC Davis College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 11/9/2021

UC-Davis and Utah State meet in a battle of Aggies in college basketball action from the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Tuesday night.

The UC-Davis Aggies come into the 2021-22 season following an abbreviated 2020-21 season where they went 10-8 on the year including 6-4 in conference play to finish with the #4 seed in the Big West conference tournament. The Aggies took down CSU-Bakersfield in the quarterfinals before falling to the conference tournament winner UCSB in the semi-finals. The Aggies bring back a lot of last year’s production including three of their top four scorers, headlined by Ezta Manjon who led the Aggies with 15.6 PPG while Elijah Pepper had 14.7 PPG and Caleb Fuller had 10.3 PPG last season. There’s lots of hope within the team for continuity as the Aggies boast a lineup with no seniors on the roster. Only time will tell if UC-Davis can re-establish themselves as one of the Big West’s elite in 2021-22.

The Utah State Aggies will look to build on the success of their 2020-21 season, finishing the year 20-9 overall, including 15-4 in Mountain West conference play to finish in second place, taking down UNLV and Colorado State in the conference tournament before falling to San Diego State in the championship game. The Aggies’ season was good enough to land them an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament where they received a #11 seed but lost to Texas Tech in the first round. Head coach Craig Smith left for Utah, resulting in former UMBC head coach Ryan Odom accepting the offer to take over at Utah State and Odom’s effect could be seen right away as two of UMBC’s top players from last year, in R.J. Eytle-Rock and Brandon Horvath both transferred into play for the Aggies as did former Utah Ute Rylan Jones. The Aggies also bring back key guys like Justin Bean and Brock Miller to make up a fairly solid lineup to do battle in the Mountain West this season.

UC-Davis is 17-4-1 ATS in their last 22 games as an underdog and 16-6-1 ATS in their last 23 road games while the under is 7-1 in their last 8 games as an underdog. Utah State is 8-3 ATS in their last 11 home games and 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games overall while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games as a favorite.

I get the case to be made for Utah State at home here, but while both teams have talent and depth, it’s the UC-Davis lineup that has more continuity from last year. It may take some time for the new transfers at Utah State to start clicking, but until they do, there’s added value with UC-Davis and the points.