Utah vs Arizona 12/1/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Arizona Wildcats and the Utah Utes meet in Pac-12 conference college basketball action from the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Thursday.

The Arizona Wildcats will look to build on their 81-79 win over Creighton last time out. Azuolas Tubelis leads the Wildcats in scoring with 19.3 PPG along with 8 RPG while Oumar Ballo has 19 PPG and a team-high 10 RPG to lead the Wildcats on the glass by averaging a double-double per game this season. Courtney Ramey has 16 PPG and 4.7 RPG and Kerr Kriisa has 15.3 PPG with 4.2 RPG and a team-high 7.5 APG to lead Arizona in assists this season. Pelle Larsson’s added 11.2 PPG and 4.8 RPG as well this season for the Wildcats. As a team, Arizona is averaging 97.5 PPG on 60.3% shooting from the field, 45% from three and 73.4% from the foul line this season.

The Utah Utes will hope to find some consistency, alternating wins and losses in each of their last five games after a 95-66 win over St. Thomas last time out. Branden Carlson leads Utah in scoring and rebounding with 13.1 PPG and 7.7 RPG while Gabe Madsen has 13 PPG with 3.7 RPG and Marco Anthony has 11 PPG with 5.3 RPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Utah up to this point in the season. Rollie Worster also has 9 PPG with 5.1 RPG and a team-high 4 APG up to this point in the season, leading Arizona in assists. As a team, Utah is averaging 71.1 PPG on 45.5% shooting from the field, 36.4% from three and 69.2% from the foul line this season.

Arizona is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games against a team with a winning record and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 Thursday games while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record. Utah is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games following an ATS win and 3-8 ATS in their last 11 games following a win while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 games overall.

I get the case to be made for the Utes at home here as an underdog, but the problem is that the Wildcats have been rock solid this season and while it is their first true road game, they had no problem going on the road last year and getting the job done. Utah’s solid defensively, but I just feel like Arizona pulls away over the course of the game and gets the job done. Give me Arizona here.