Stanford vs Loyola-Chicago 12/22/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Loyola Ramblers and the Stanford Cardinal meet Thursday in college basketball action from Kaiser Permanente Arena. Loyola is currently 6-5 on the season following a win over Albany on Sunday. As for Stanford, they’re sitting at 4-7 this year. The Cardinal fell to Texas in their most recent outing. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Loyola went 2-4 in their first six games this year, losing to Tulsa, Boise State, Texas A&M and Harvard in that time. The Ramblers are 4-1 since then, beating Central AR, Green Bay, Clemson and Albany along the way. 

Back on Sunday versus Albany, the Ramblers jumped out to a 37-28 lead by the break. Loyola scored another 31 points in the second half during a 68-56 win. Lead scorer Philip Alston doubled up on 17 points and 11 rebounds. 

Over on the Stanford side, their wins have come versus Pacific, Cal Poly, Florida State and Green Bay. The Cardinal have losses otherwise to Wisconsin, SDSU, Ole Miss, Memphis, UCLA, Arizona State and Texas. 

Matched up against Texas on Sunday, the Cardinal trailed by three points at halftime. Stanford faded on a 41-34 deficit from there however, and lost 72-62. Michael Jones was the top team scorer on 17 points and three rebounds. 

PICK: I’ll probably stay with Loyola. The Ramblers have looked pretty good over this current 4-1 swing, scoring 68 or more points in all five outings. Loyola hadn’t cracked 66 points in their previous four games, so it’s been a nice offensive turnaround. As for Stanford, they’ve run through a gauntlet of three ranked squads in their last four games. Generally speaking however, the Cardinal have been able to hang around with comparable teams pretty well this year. This one will be interesting, but I think Loyola can ultimately stay close and bag the cover.