Following a brilliant win over Arizona, Brigham Young will
now battle it out with UCLA on Saturday in Anaheim's Honda Center. The Cougars are ranked in the top 25 and are a heavy favorite in this game.
The Cougars had already beaten the likes of St. Mary's,
South Florida and Creighton heading into last weekend's much-anticipated clash
with the Wildcats.
Coming in as 3.5 point favorites, BYU Cougars had easily their best
performance of the season, winning 87-65 on a neutral court to easily cover the
spread.
Explosive scorer Jimmer Fredette was at it again in the win,
pouring in 33 points on 11 of 22 shooting. He added nine rebounds and three
assists.
UCLA has been rather inconsistent so far this season,
picking up five wins out of nine games.
The Bruins started off with three solid wins, but then
dropped four straight to Villanova, VCU, Kansas and Montana.
After that poor run, UCLA has won two in a row, including a
74-67 victory over UC-Davis on Monday.
Tyler Honeycutt had an off shooting night, only connecting
on 4 of 16 shots, but he did finish with 10 points to go along with 12 rebounds
and five blocks in the winning effort. Malcolm Lee led the Bruins in scoring
with 15 points.
BYU to be favored over UCLA
While no college basketball odds have been released by the
top sportsbooks at this point, you can find them at SBRlines.com as soon as
they are made public.
Ranked in the top 25 and full of confidence, the Cougars
will without question be favored on the neutral court over their PAC-10
opponents.
Forwards Chris Collinsworth (ankle) and Noah Hartsock
(concussion) missed the game versus Arizona and both are considered
questionable for Saturday's contest.
But even without those two available, the Cougars took care
of the Wildcats and will likely do the same against UCLA Bruins this weekend.
Brigham Young is scoring an impressive 83.5 points per game
so far this season while only allowing an average of 61.7. Dave Rose's ballclub
also have the edge over UCLA in team defense as well as rebounding and bench
scoring.
The Bruins have four different players who average double
figures, but are led by Tyler Honeycutt who is putting up 15.3 PPG so far this
season.
However, will they be able to hang with the Cougars on
Saturday? One thing UCLA has done this season is play to the level of their
competition, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the Bruins keep it close and
hang on to stay within the number.
Yes, BYU is playing at a very high level at the moment, but
I'm siding with the underdog here on the neutral court. The Bruins need a
strong performance against a top opponent to jump-start their season and I
think it will come this weekend.