Washington vs UCLA Prediction 1/24/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The UCLA Bruins and the Washington Huskies meet Friday in college basketball action from Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Here’s a Washington vs UCLA prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Washington vs UCLA pick.

UCLA Bruins Betting Preview

The Bruins kicked off the season on a highly consistent run, but then suffered a rough losing streak at the beginning of January. UCLA has since regained their composure in the last couple of games, however. The Bruins opened up on a 10-1 run, losing to only New Mexico among wins versus Rider, Boston U, Lehigh, Idaho State, Cal State Fullerton, Southern Utah, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and Prairie View A&M. A 1-5 run came after that with a lone win over Gonzaga on December 28. Otherwise it was losses to North Carolina, Nebraska, Michigan, Maryland and Rutgers during that time. Since then UCLA has recovered with victories over Iowa and Wisconsin in successive games. That gives the Bruins a 13-6 overall record so far this season through 19 games.

On Tuesday in their matchup with Wisconsin, the Bruins were down 41-36 by halftime. UCLA recovered from there however, posting a 49-42 second half run on the way to a big victory 85-83 in the end. Aday Mara came off the bench to post 22 points with five rebounds and two assists to lead the team. Sebastian Mack added 19 points with four rebounds and two assists off the bench, while Tyler Bilodeau led the starters with his 16 points and two rebounds.

Washington Huskies Betting Preview

Over on the Washington side, they opened up the season on a great run, then hit a middling stretch in December. Since then the Huskies have struggled in the win column amid a gauntlet of extremely tough top-tier opponents. Washington went 6-1 out of the gate with a lone loss to Nevada amid wins over UC Davis, Seattle Pacific, UMass Lowell, Alcorn State, Colorado State and Santa Clara otherwise. A 4-3 stretch came next with losses to UCLA, USC and Seattle U among wins over Eastern Washington, Washington State, NJIT and Maryland in that time. Since then however, Washington has hit the skids on a five-game losing streak. The defeats in that time came courtesy of Illinois, Michigan State, Michigan, Purdue and Oregon, giving the Huskies a 10-9 overall run through the first 19 games of their season so far.

Matched up against Oregon in the Tuesday outing, the Huskies held a 34-32 disadvantage after the first half. Washington hit a 48-39 deficit the rest of the way unfortunately, and didn’t end up getting any closer in an 82-71 loss. Leading the scoring was Great Osobor with 20 points, eight boards and three assists. Zoom Diallo added 18 points with three rebounds and three assists, while Tyler Harris posted 15 points with two rebounds and two assists.

Why the Washington Huskies will win

• Washington has won nine of its last 10 night games at Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• UCLA has lost four of its last five games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• The home team has won the first half in each of the last four games between UCLA and Washington.

Why the UCLA Bruins will win

• Washington has lost 11 of its last 12 games against the Big Ten Conference.
• UCLA has won 10 of its last 11 games against Washington.
• UCLA has won the first half in nine of its last 10 night games against non-AP-ranked opponents.

Washington vs UCLA Prediction

I’m staying with UCLA. The Bruins need to avoid the “big-win hangover” problem here, but if all goes well they’ll represent another tricky matchup for the Huskies. UCLA shot a nice 50.9 percent from the field with 10 points off 13 Badgers turnovers in their upset win over Wisconsin. The rebounding (a 28-25 deficit) could have been better, but that’s about the only issue in an otherwise solid performance—unless you count the fairly permissive defense allowing 83 points. In any case, UCLA is back to scoring well themselves after a bit of a lull. The Bruins have posted a combined 179 points across their last two outings.

As for Washington, they’ll finally get a beatable opponent at home following five straight games versus ranked squads (three of those coming on the road). The Huskies notched a respectable 71 or more points in three of those five games, however they also allowed 81 or more points in four of them (69 in the outlier versus Purdue). UCLA should have room enough to score well here, and I like the Bruins to eke one out. Should be a pretty solid matchup regardless, though.