UCLA Starts Northern California Swing as Spread Betting Underdog against Stanford

The Bruins can’t get any respect, and will start a two-game road trip being the college basketball spread betting underdog despite coming off four straight wins at home.

UCLA (18-7, 9-3 Pac-10) at Stanford (13-11, 6-7 Pac-10)

Date/Time: Thursday, February 17, 2011, 10:30 PM EST

Venue: Maples Pavilion in Stanford, CA.

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Broadcast: Fox Sports Net National

College Basketball Betting Money Line: OFF

Spread: Stanford -1

Over/Under: 129

After being picked to finish third in this year’s Pac-10 preseason media poll, the Bruins are currently sitting in second in the conference just one game back of thirteenth-ranked Arizona, as they prepare to do battle with Pac-10 rival the Stanford Cardinal on Thursday night.

Simply put, UCLA has been one of the Pac-10′s hottest teams since mid-January, as the Bruins have won nine of their last 10 overall and enter tonight’s contest riding a five-game winning streak, including a home sweep of the Oregon schools last week concluding with a 69-61 win over the Beavers in their last outing.

Malcolm Lee scored 19 points before fouling out, while Joshua Smith added 15 points for UCLA, extending the Bruins’ winning streak against Oregon State to 13 games.

Of course, it helped that the Bruins were playing the Beavers, who haven’t beaten them since the 2005 Pac-10 tournament, making UCLA’s domination the longest active streak by a league team against another.

The Bruins are averaging 71.0 points per game, with five different players averaging double-figures in scoring. UCLA’s shooting percentage is solid at 46.0, but they are also averaging 15.2 turnovers per game. Something they will need to repair before taking on the Cardinal.

As for Stanford, it hosts its final Pac-10 home stand of the year this week, beginning with Thursday’s game against UCLA and is looking to match last year’s win total (14) with a victory against the Bruins.
That might be a pipe dream as the Cardinal have only been somewhat successful in recent meetings with UCLA.

The Bruins have won eight of the last 10 overall, including a 68-57 victory over Stanford in Los Angeles last month. Last year’s series was split, with each club defending its home court. In fact, Stanford’s 70-59 victory at Maples Pavilion last year snapped a six-game losing streak to the Bruins.

Stanford’s recent play has garnered them three wins in their last five, but their 6-7 conference record will be keeps them out of this year’s Big Dance.

Coming off a road loss to Washington, who trail UCLA by 1 ½ games, the Cardinal will hope to get a repeat performance out of leading scorer Jeremy Green who was a bright spot against the Huskies with 24 points on 47 percent shooting in 32 minutes. The junior guard also added a game-high 12 rebounds.

It would appear on paper that the Bruins would be the obvious college basketball spread betting pick in this one, but for some reason are still considered rank outsiders by the odds makers. At +1, the Bruins are the best pick here.