After a day off, the WCC Tournament is set to resume on Monday night with a pair of semifinal matchups. In the first game, the top-seeded Saint Mary’s Gaels will take the court in Las Vegas for the first time. Their opponent in the Semifinal Round will be the BYU Cougars who have already won two WCC Tournament games to reach this point. The BYU vs Saint Mary’s odds and college basketball betting picks are quite confident that the higher seed will emerge victorious.
The following game preview provides the college basketball betting odds, trends and KenPom ratings before sharing our official BYU vs Saint Mary’s prediction for the WCC Tournament Semifinal matchup.
BYU vs Saint Mary’s Prediction | College Basketball Betting Picks
WCC Tournament Semifinal
(5) BYU Cougars (19-14, 7-9 WCC) vs. (1) Saint Mary’s Gaels (25-6, 14-2 WCC)
Time: 9 p.m. EST
Venue: Orleans Arena — Las Vegas, NV
Coverage: ESPN
BYU Cougars Preview
BYU could never seem to get out of its own way during the regular season. As a result, the Cougars wound up as the 5-seed in the WCC Tournament and were forced to begin play in the Second Round. After dispatching Portland on Friday night, BYU was also able to take out Loyola Marymount on Saturday. Both victories featured double-digit final margins. The Cougs will be college basketball betting underdogs for the first time in this tournament in Monday’s semifinal game.
Saint Mary’s Gaels Preview
There’s no doubt that Saint Mary’s will be itching to get back on the court tonight. The Gaels have not played since their regular-season finale which they lost to Gonzaga. The two teams shared the WCC regular season title as a result, but Randy Bennett’s squad earned the top seed in the conference tournament by virtue of tiebreakers. After receiving a triple-bye into the Semifinal Round, Saint Mary’s is just two wins away from maximizing their seeding in the NCAA Tournament.
BYU vs Saint Mary’s College Basketball Betting Picks and Odds
College basketball betting odds for BYU vs Saint Mary’s can be found at BetOnline Sportsbook.
Moneyline: BYU: (+250) | SMC: (-300)
Point Spread: BYU: +7 (-115) | SMC: -7 (-105)
Total: 128.5 — Over: (-110) | Under: (-110)
College Basketball KenPom Ratings
The following table displays the KenPom adjusted efficiency ratings for the two teams involved in Monday’s first WCC Tournament semifinal matchup. In addition to overall efficiency margin, offensive, defensive and tempo ratings are included.
| Team | Overall AdjEM (Rk) | AdjO (Rk) | AdjD (Rk) | AdjT (Rk) |
| BYU | +11.67 (75) | 109.1 (108) | 97.4 (41) | 69.9 (65) |
| Saint Mary’s | +23.31 (7) | 114.1 (37) | 90.8 (5) | 62.2 (359) |
BYU vs Saint Mary’s College Basketball Betting Trends
- Cougars are 5-1 ATS in their last six games overall.
- Gaels are 3-6 ATS in their last nine games overall.
- Five of the Gaels’ last seven games have gone OVER the total.
- Cougars are 6-0 ATS in their last six head-to-head matchups against the Gaels.
- Six of the last seven BYU vs Saint Mary’s head-to-head meetings have stayed UNDER the total.
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BYU vs Saint Mary’s Prediction | College Basketball Betting Picks
Saint Mary’s swept both regular season meetings against BYU this year. That said, both games were extremely competitive. Aidan Mahaney beat the buzzer in the first encounter in Provo to push the Gaels to victory by a single point! The rematch in Moraga saw Saint Mary’s win by six, but it still wasn’t enough to cover the college basketball betting spread for the game.
Coming into Monday’s semifinal, BYU has now covered six straight meetings against Saint Mary’s. Coach Mark Pope has shuffled up his rotation a bit in this WCC Tournament and the results have certainly been positive. Of course, BYU will face a much tougher challenge offensively going up against a Gaels outfit that is among the best in the country defensively.
With that being said, the Cougars have already hung tough against Saint Mary’s twice this season, including in a true road environment. If anything, the crowd at the Orleans Arena on Monday will be tilted in BYU’s favor, as was the case in the Quarterfinal Round on Saturday. The day off in between games figures to be beneficial as well.
While an outright upset may be a lot to ask, BYU certainly has enough talent to stay within striking distance in this game. Betting the Under on the game total of 128.5 is also an option here given the fact that both teams excel defensively and that Saint Mary’s ranks among the slowest teams in all of college basketball.
BYU COVERS will be our official college basketball betting BYU vs Saint Mary’s prediction for the WCC Tournament Semifinal Round matchup.
For what it’s worth, the ESPN Matchup Predictor gives Saint Mary’s an 82.2% chance to win this game outright.
Bet: BYU +7 (-115 at BetOnline Sportsbook)
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