The Utah Utes and the UCLA Bruins meet Sunday in college basketball action from Pauley Pavilion. Utah enters this game following a loss to USC that dropped the Utes to 15-10 overall. As for UCLA, they’re 14-11 so far after a win over Colorado on Thursday. Let’s get into our Utah vs. UCLA prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Utah Utes
The Utes lost five of their first 19 games to Houston, St. John’s, Arizona State, Arizona and Stanford for a 14-5 start. It’s been a rough 1-5 stretch for Utah since then, featuring losses to Washington State, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State and USC alongside a win over Colorado.
Matched up versus USC on Thursday, the Utes faced a 34-29 deficit going into the second half. Utah got slightly better from there on a 35-34 run but ended up losing 68-64. Deivon Smith topped the team in the defeat with 19 points, seven assists and nine boards.
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UCLA Bruins
Over on the Bruins’ side, they got off to a rough start at just 6-10 through January 11. UCLA is much improved on an 8-1 stretch since then though, beating Washington, Arizona State, USC, Oregon State, Oregon, Stanford, California and Colorado (with a lone loss to Arizona mixed in).
In their latest outing versus Colorado on Thursday, the Bruins jumped out to a 38-29 lead by the break. UCLA had to hang on after a 31-26 second-half deficit, but eventually won 64-60. Sebastian Mack was the leading team scorer on 19 points and four rebounds.
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I’m going to stay with UCLA. This should be a good one though; you could make a case either way. The Bruins eked past a pretty good Colorado team in their last outing despite giving up 52.2 percent shooting from the field. The key stat there was UCLA’s 19 points off 14 Buffaloes turnovers. That makes just 125 combined points in the last two games for the Bruins, however they’ve given up just 120 on the other side in that pair.
These teams last saw each other back on January 11 in a blowout home win 90-44 for Utah. UCLA shot just 31.5 percent from the field and 3-of-17 (17.6 percent) from 3-point range in that one alongside a rough 50-28 rebounding deficit. I like the home rematch to be a lot more competitive with the Bruins pulling out a close cover. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Utes power out another dominant performance here either, though. All things considered I’m probably staying away. Should be a fun one to watch regardless.