There will be plenty on the line as far as the March Madness bubble watch is concerned in Friday night’s Pac-12 Tournament semifinal games. In the first matchup, the 4-seed Oregon Ducks will have an opportunity to position themselves for an at-large bid when they take on the top-seeded UCLA Bruins. Of course, a win tonight will also secure a spot in the Pac-12 Tournament Championship. The latest college basketball betting picks project this Oregon vs UCLA matchup to be a highly-competitive affair.
The following game preview provides the college basketball betting odds, trends and KenPom ratings before sharing our official Oregon vs UCLA prediction for the Pac-12 Tournament semifinal matchup.
Oregon vs UCLA Prediction | College Basketball Betting Picks
Pac-12 Tournament Semifinal
(4) Oregon Ducks (19-13, 12-8 Pac-12) vs. (1) UCLA Bruins (28-4, 18-2 Pac-12)
Time: 9 p.m. EST
Venue: T-Mobile Arena — Las Vegas, NV
Coverage: Pac-12 Network
Oregon Ducks Preview
There’s no denying that Oregon sustained its fair share of bad losses during the regular season. However, Dana Altman appears to have his team clicking at the perfect time. The Ducks ride a four-game winning streak into Friday’s contest. The most recent win came over Washington State in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament. A win over the fourth-ranked team in the NET could be enough for Oregon to sneak into the NCAA Tournament.
UCLA Bruins Preview
Questions were raised about how UCLA would perform in the absence of Jaylen Clark, who is out for the rest of the season due to injury. For the better part of Thursday’s quarterfinal, the Bruins appeared to have their hands full with 9-seed Colorado. Mick Cronin’s team was eventually able to pull away late to miraculously cover the college basketball betting picks with an 11-point victory. UCLA is clearly in the NCAA Tournament field, but winning a Pac-12 title could prove necessary in order to secure a No. 1 seed.
Oregon vs UCLA College Basketball Betting Picks and Odds
College basketball betting odds for Oregon vs UCLA can be found at BetOnline Sportsbook.
Moneyline: ORE: (+190) | UCLA: (-220)
Point Spread: ORE: +5 (-110) | UCLA: -5 (-110)
Total: 133.5 — Over: (-112) | Under: (-108)
College Basketball KenPom Ratings
The following table displays the KenPom adjusted efficiency ratings for the two teams involved in Friday’s first Pac-12 Tournament Semifinal. In addition to overall efficiency margin, offensive, defensive and tempo ratings are included.
Team | Overall AdjEM (Rk) | AdjO (Rk) | AdjD (Rk) | AdjT (Rk) |
Oregon | +15.39 (38) | 115.1 (28) | 99.7 (70) | 66.3 (237) |
UCLA | +27.48 (2) | 115.8 (22) | 88.4 (2) | 66.5 (228) |
Oregon vs UCLA College Basketball Betting Trends
- Ducks are 5-2-1 ATS in their last eight games against teams with a winning record.
- Each of the Ducks’ last four games has gone OVER the total.
- Bruins are 4-1-1 ATS in their last six games overall.
- Seven of the Bruins’ last nine games against teams with a winning record have gone OVER the total.
- The total has gone OVER in seven of the last ten Oregon vs UCLA head-to-head matchups.
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Oregon vs UCLA Prediction | College Basketball Betting Picks
There’s an old adage that beating a team three times in the same season is never easy. Well, this theory does apply to our first Pac-12 Tournament semifinal game as UCLA was able to knock off Oregon in both regular season meetings. The Bruins won by nine points back in December on their home floor and overcame a three-point halftime deficit to win by seven on the road in mid-February.
As for tonight’s meeting, the pressure is squarely on Oregon. A win would provide a major boost to the Ducks’ NCAA Tournament hopes and would also bring them within a win of securing an automatic bid into the field of 68. The biggest concern for Oregon figures to be slowing down the potent UCLA offense.
With Pac-12 Conference Player of the Year, Jaime Jacquez Jr. and Tyger Campbell leading the way, the Bruins are a force to be reckoned with. The Ducks will counter with the likes of center N’Faly Dante and guards Jermaine Couisnard and Will Richardson, all of whom are averaging north of 12 points per game on the year.
While UCLA ranks 22nd in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency, the Ducks aren’t too far behind at No. 28. This leads one to assume that we could see an ample amount of scoring in tonight’s contest. The main counterargument is the fact that both sides are not typically pushing to play at a fast pace. That said, the presence of gifted and experienced scorers on both sides should lead to fairly efficient offensive production.
OVER THE TOTAL will be our official college basketball betting Oregon vs UCLA prediction for the Pac-12 Tournament Semifinal Round matchup.
For what it’s worth, the ESPN Matchup Predictor gives UCLA an 82.9% chance to win this game outright.
Bet: OVER 133.5 (-112 at BetOnline Sportsbook)