NCAA Basketball Pac 10 Matchup - Oregon at Arizona

NCAA Basketball Sports Betting
Oregon Ducks at Arizona Wildcats
Thursday, January 8

BetUS NCAA Basketball Sports Betting Odds: ARIZONA -10.5

Here are some of the NCAA basketball sports betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

* ORE has lost seven of its last ten games SU
* ORE has covered three of its last ten games
* ORE has played its last five games OVER the total
* ORE has lost four of its last six road games
* ORE has covered two of its last seven road games
* ORE has played five of its last six road games OVER the total
* ARIZ has covered one of its last five games
* ARIZ has played five of its last eight games UNDER the total
* ARIZ has won its last six home games SU
* ARIZ has covered four of its last five home games

Also...

* ORE has won four of the last five meetings SU
* ORE has covered six of the last seven meetings
* Four of the last six meetings have gone UNDER the total
* ARIZ has won 10 of the last 13 meetings SU as the home team
* ORE has covered five of the last six meetings as the road team
* ORE has made more three-pointers in each of the last seven meetings

Arizona has been plagued by inconsistency, looking very much like a lot of Arizona teams in the recent past. Surely this was not the ideal situation for Russ Pennell to take over as head coach, with Lute Olson coming back to take the coaching reins after a year's hiatus, only to give them up again due to ill health shortly before the season began.

Arizona lost high-scoring guard Jarryd Bayless to the NBA, but that wasn't necessarily supposed to be something that hurt the team; in fact, the prospect was that it would actually foster some better ball distribution, since Bayless was such a dominant force in the offense. Certainly the Wildcats had the distributor in Nic Wise; they also had one of the conference's most talented players returning in forward Chase Budinger, could have gone to the NBA but didn't.

The 'Cats have been terribly disappointing in losses to the likes of UNLV, California and Stanford. Those last two defeats, which opened the Pac-10 season for them, were by a combined total of 30 points. Yes, this team has detractors, because it just can't seem to win games on the road. However, this is admittedly a different team when they get to the McKale Center, as evidenced by very convincing wins over San Diego State, Gonzaga and Kansas. Pennell is cracking the whip and demanding the proverbial "sense of urgency." We expect Arizona to come out fired up.

If they're smart, that means feeding Jordan Hill inside. The 6'10" junior forward has averaged 18.7 points and 12.1 rebounds, cut down a bit on his fouls, blocks 2.5 shots per game and in general has become a prime NBA prospect, as well as a candidate for Pac-10 player of the year. He had 17 points and 16 rebounds in the loss at Stanford.

Oregon has covered six of the last seven meetings between these two schools, but the Ducks are having a difficult time this year in their rebuilding phase. Coach Ernie Kent has some talent, but not enough of the offensive explosiveness he needs to play his up-tempo style effectively. Oregon is shooting less than 42%, and defense has also been a problem. Freshmen are being used extensively (three of them started against UCLA), and though 6'10" center Michael Dunigan (10.5 ppg, 53% shooting) has a bright future, he could be taken to school against the aforementioned Hill. The Ducks have a small backcourt, and Tajuan Porter (5'6") and Garrett Sim (6'1") have about a 1-to-1 ratio of assists to turnovers.