posted March 14, 2008 at 17:04 EST in NCAA B Free Picks

USC Trojans (+ 9) vs. UCLA Bruins (- 9)

Tip-off: 9:00 pm EST.

The Trojans got lucky yesterday versus the Arizona State Sun Devils. UCLA played great against the Cal Golden Bears. Lest we forget, Cal almost beat UCLA last weekend. Well, yesterday’s game wasn’t close. UCLA ran up the score and won by 22 points. In their past ten games the Bruins have gone 6 and 4 against the BetUS spread. That shouldn’t bother anybody that much. The Bruins are without a doubt one of the top five teams in college basketball right now.

The Trojans needed a bad call to go against the ASU Sun Devils before getting the win and advancing in the Pac-10 Tournament. The Trojans have gone 5 and 5 against the BetUS spread in their last 10 games. An interesting note about this game is that it is the first time that the Trojans and the Bruins are going to face each other in the Pac-10 Tournament. Here are some other trends.

The USC Trojans are 17 and 12 against the spread so far this season.

The USC Trojans have gone 2 and 3 against the spread in their last 5 games.

The UCLA Bruins are 18-10-2 against the spread so far this season.

The UCLA Bruins have gone 3 and 2 against the spread in their last 5 games.

As much as I love the UCLA Bruins, the BetUS spread is just too high for me to pick them in this game. Nine points is an awful lot of points to give to a team like USC that has already beaten the Bruins once.

I don’t think that USC has enough to beat the Bruins tonight, but I do think that they can definitely keep things close because of their speed on offense. The Trojans also have O.J. Mayo and although I do believe that Kevin Love is a more polished college basketball player at this point in their careers, Mayo can light up the scoreboard.

UCLA will play a great game tomorrow, but USC might play a great one as well. No matter what anybody believes, this is a rivalry game. Rivalry games usually end up close. I’ll be betting that happens in this game tonight.

The BetUS NCAAB line is USC Trojans + 9 against the spread versus the UCLA Bruins at a neutral site.

The Trojans shouldn’t be good enough to win this game, but they should be good enough to keep it close.

Because of that I do like the Trojans to beat the BetUS spread.

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