Ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in 16 years, No. 21 Washington State looks to pull a major upset on Thursday in Pac-12 action when the Cougars visit No. 4 Arizona in a battle for first place in the league. 2024 NCAA Basketball Betting & Expert Analysis #21 Washington State vs. #4 Arizona | MyBookie Sportsbook Week 16 NCAAB
How to Bet Washington State at Arizona NCAA Basketball Odds & TV Info
When: Thursday, 11 PM ET
Where: McKale Center
TV: Fox Sports 1
Stream: Fox Sports Live
Radio: Tunein.com
Opening NCAAB Lines: Arizona -12 (total 150.5)
#21 Washington State vs #4 Arizona Last Meeting
On Jan. 13, Arizona was upset at Washington State, 73-70. The Cougars’ Isaac Jones had 24 points and 13 rebounds. He got a short jumper to fall with 1:11 left to put Wazzu up by four and grabbed the game-ending rebound after Caleb Love’s 3-point attempt fell short. Love led Arizona with 28 points on 10-of-25 shooting. It was the second straight season the Cougars have beaten Arizona with the Wildcats ranked in the top 10. Washington State won 74-61 in Tucson last season when Arizona was No. 5. The last time the Cougars had beaten a top-10 team at home was Jan. 16, 2020, against then-No. 8 Oregon. Arizona leads the all-time series against Washington State, 70-19.
Why Bet on Washington State Cougars?
Washington State (20-6, 11-4 Pac-12) comes off its seventh straight win, 72-59 over Stanford on Saturday. The Cardinal trailed by 10 in the first half, 21-11 with 9:56 to go in the period, but rallied to take the lead with a 23-12 spurt over the subsequent eight minutes, 34-33. Benny Gealer scored in the closing seconds of the half, with Stanford ahead at the break by one, 36-35.
Washington St. Last 5
| vs Stanford – W72-59 |
| vs California – W84-65 |
| @ Oregon – W62-56 |
| @ Oregon St. – W64-58 |
| @ Washington – W90-87 |
Stanford’s largest lead of the game came with 15:32 left in the second half, 47-42, with Brandon Angel and Kaanan Carlyle making back-to-back baskets while being fouled. The Cougars responded with a 21-6 run to take control and secure the result.
Jaylen Wells and Isaac Jones scored 15 points each with Jones going over 1,000 in his career for the Cougars. Andrej Jakimovski hit a 3-pointer for the 15th and final lead change and began a 16-2 run that he finished with another 3-pointer and a layup for a 68-55 lead at the final media timeout. He finished with 13 points. Myles Rice, who set a WSU freshman record with 35 points in the Cougars’ 89-75 win over Stanford on Jan. 18, was held to four in the first half but rebounded to hit a couple 3-pointers and lead the Cougars with 10 second-half points. Oscar Cluff grabbed 12 rebounds.
The Cougars recorded five team blocks and moved into sixth for most blocked shots in a season all-time with 137 (passed 2010-11 season when it recorded 136 blocks in a season). For the second time this season and second time in program history, Washington State swept the weekly media awards with Jones and Rice earning Pac-12 Player and Freshman of the Week, respectively.
Jones became the first Cougar since CJ Elleby to eclipse 1,000 points. The fifth-year senior has scored 10+ points in all but two games this season. Over the weekend, Rice moved to second all-time in WSU freshman steals history, fifth in made free throws, sixth in freshman season assists. Rice is the only high-major freshman leading his team in scoring, assists, and steals.
The Cougars hold opponents to just 40.7% shooting, best in the Pac-12 and 35th in D-I, 32.2% from 3-point range, while blocking 5.3 shots per game, 2nd in the Pac-12 and 17th in the country.
Washington State landed at No. 21 in the new AP Poll on Monday, cracking the rankings for the first time since 2008. The last time the Cougars had a 10-1 stretch in conference play as they do now was during the 1940-41 season, when they had a 13-1 streak in the old Pacific Coast Conference. That team lost to Wisconsin 39-34 in the national championship game.
“There’s no doubt it’s an accomplishment,” WSU head coach Kyle Smith said of the ranking. “To be able to be ranked, is really like we’re the new faces. And, you know, we, as a staff, we thought we had good personnel. But, to actually be able to do it is really, it’s hard. To be able to kind of put ourselves in that rare air, it’s awesome. Right now, this is the best team we’ve had in five years.”
If the Cougs are able to beat Arizona on Thursday, it would mark the first time WSU has been in first place of the Pac-12 since Feb. 14, 2007, a spot WSU held for one day.
“We’ve done it before, but it’s the hardest place to play in the country,” said Smith, who took the Cougars to back-to-back NITs but has his sights set firmly on their first NCAA Tournament bid since that 2008 team lost to North Carolina in the Sweet 16.
Bet Washington State to Win
Vegas College Basketball Odds
Why Bet on Arizona Wildcats?
Arizona (20-5, 11-3) won its sixth game in a row Saturday, 105-60 over rival Arizona State. Arizona shot 57% from the floor and had a 52-16 advantage in the paint to give Tommy Lloyd his 81st win, most in major-conference history by a coach in his first three seasons at a school.
Arizona Last 5
| vs Arizona St. – W105-60 |
| @ Colorado – W99-79 |
| @ Utah – W105-99 |
| vs Stanford – W82-71 |
| vs California – W91-65 |
ASU initially matched the intensity of the home Wildcats as the Sun Devils jumped out to a quick 9-4 lead behind the strong start of Jose Perez. ASU managed to push their lead back out to five, moving ahead 20-15 with 12:38 left in the first half. Foul trouble would plague the visitors the remainder of the half, a contributing factor to Arizona going on several scoring runs. Despite the efforts of Perez (9 points) and Jamiya Neal (6 points & 4 rebounds), Arizona State went into the half trailing 49-31 and really the game was over.
Arizona’s Oumar Ballo finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, giving him a double-double in five straight games – the longest streak by an Arizona player since Deandre Ayton had a five-game stretch in 2018. During the six-game win streak, Ballo is averaging 15.2 points, 12.5 rebounds and shooting 71.4% from the floor.
Guard Caleb Love had 15 points and is 10 candidates for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award. Love is second in the Pac-12 in scoring in conference play at 20.5 ppg. He’s making more shots per game (6.3) than he did last year (5.7) while taking fewer shots (15.1 to 14.6) and playing fewer minutes (32.1 this year, 35.8 last year).
Keshad Johnson is one of 10 players named to the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award late season watch list. He’s averaging 11.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and shooting a career-best 38.3% from the 3-point line. The Wildcats have grabbed 10+ offensive rebounds in 21 of 25 games, including each of the last nine games. Arizona ranks third in the country in rebound margin at +11 per game.
The Arizona offense has posted a 10-0 run 25 times this season, the second-most in the country. Conversely, the Arizona defense has surrendered just six runs of 10-0 or better.
This week, Arizona gave Lloyd a five-year contract extension that will keep him in Tucson until at least 2029. The Cats are poised for another Pac-12 championship this season and were a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament selection committee’s mock bracket reveal Saturday. Before going to Arizona, Lloyd spent the first 21 seasons of his coaching career at Gonzaga as an assistant under Mark Few.
Lloyd is 45-2 at McKale Center as the head coach of Arizona (13-0 this year). That .957 winning percentage is the best home winning percentage in the country over that span. Arizona is 3-2 against ranked opponents this season and 14-6 in Lloyd’s tenure. It’s the third-best winning percentage in the country vs. ranked teams (Purdue, FAU).
Bet Arizona to Win
College Basketball Betting Lines
#21 Washington State vs #4 Arizona Expert Prediction
Arizona 80, Washington State 70
NCAA Basketball Odds to Win Championship – Top 10
| UConn Huskies +500 | Purdue Boilermakers +710 |
| Houston Cougars +860 | Arizona Wildcats +1225 |
| Tennessee Volunteers +1275 | North Carolina Tar Heels +1750 |
| Auburn Tigers +1875 | Alabama Crimson Tide +2000 |
| Iowa State Cyclones +2200 | Kansas Jayhawks +2200 |
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#4 Arizona vs Washington State, February 10, 2022
#4 Arizona vs Washington State | NCAA Basketball Odds for the Game
Washington State is likely an NCAA Tournament bubble team as things stand, but the surging Cougars would get off that bubble for the time being if they can upset visiting No. 4 Arizona on Thursday night as 5.5-point underdogs on the NCAAB odds.
How to Bet Arizona at Washington State NCAA Basketball Odds & TV Info
- When: Thursday, 9 PM ET
- Where: Friel Court at Beasley Coliseum
- TV: Fox Sports 1
- Stream: Fox Sports Go
- Radio: Tunein.com
- Opening NCAAB Lines: Arizona -5.5 (total 143)
Last Meeting
This is the lone scheduled meeting of the season. Last year, Arizona won both. The one at Washington State was 86-82 in double overtime. Terrell Brown Jr. hit a three-pointer with 13 seconds left that proved to be the winner. Brown’s three-pointer broke an 81-all tie and, after WSU’s Isaac Bonton made 1 of 2 from the free-throw line, Bennedict Mathurin hit two foul shots with nine seconds left to cap the scoring. Mathurin was 8-of-12 shooting and finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds, and Brown scored 15 points. Bonton led the Cougars with 25 points. WSU was outscored 25-19 from the foul line despite attempting five more (37) free throws than the Wildcats. The Cougars made just 5 of 14 from the stripe after regulation.
WSU has won just once in the last 18 matchups.
Why Bet on Arizona?
Arizona (20-2) won its fourth in a row Monday, 91-79 at Arizona State. The Wildcats got the relatively easy win despite trailing 14-1 in the opening minutes. Arizona led by four points at halftime and got off to a good start in the second when Kerr Kriisa made a quick 3-pointer. It was the beginning of a game-altering push for the Wildcats, who jumped to a 49-38 advantage and never trailed again. The Sun Devils were outrebounded 48-26.
Azuolas Tubelis had 19 points and 11 rebounds and Bennedict Mathurin added 18 points to lead the Cats. Arizona was lights out from the field, going 57% on 34-of-60 shooting and a respectable 37% from three (7-for-19). Arizona became the first Pac-12 team to reach 20 overall victories and reach double-digit wins in the Pac-12.
“I credit Arizona, they were really good,” ASU coach Bobby Hurley said. “We kinda played the first seven minutes pretty well. … And after that we were kind of overmatched in a lot of ways. Things that we tried to avoid: points in the paint — we’ve been good lately in that department. It wasn’t only their size in the frontcourt. They had some runouts and the transition game. You could see how quickly they could put points on the board.”
If there’s one issue with Arizona, the team has now turned it over 20 or more times in three games, matching the same number of occurrences during the previous eight seasons. It has won all three of those games, but expecting that to always be the case is unlikely. When UA’s possessions do not end in turnovers they dominate. More than 66 percent of the Wildcats’ non-turnover possessions have produced scores.
In 8 games away from McKale Center this year, Arizona is holding opponents to 38.9% shooting from the floor. Conversely, Arizona is shooting 45.0% away from home this year.
The Cats are in the top 10 nationally in the following categories: scoring margin (2nd), assist rate (2nd), field goal pct. defense (2nd), scoring offense (3rd), blocked shots/game (3rd), total assists (5th), rebound margin (5th). In the Pac-12, Arizona leads the conference in scoring, field goal percent, rebounds, field goal percent defense, assists, scoring margin and rebound margin.
Why Bet on Washington State?
The Cougars, coming off their first road sweep of the Bay Area schools since 1993, seem to be hitting stride. They straightened out some of their scoring issues and boast a national Top-25 defense. Washington State, which is first in the Pac-12 in defensive efficiency, has held 10 of its 11 conference opponents to below one point per possession. WSU is getting a takeaway on 22.3 percent of possessions in conference play.
Washington State won 68-64 at Cal on Saturday. Michael Flowers scored 21 points and went 4-for-4 from the foul line in the final 31 seconds. Efe Abogidi scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, Tyrell Roberts scored 12 and Mouhamed Gueye had 10 for Washington State. The surging Cougars (14-7) now have won five straight, the longest streak since 2006-07.
It was WSU’s second straight win when being outrebounded, improving to 2-4 in such games. The Cougars also improved to 3-7 on the year when being outshot from the floor.
Flowers leads the team in scoring way at 13.7 points per game including a Pac best 2.7 three-pointers per game. The Cougs defense continues to be among the elite ranking 22nd in defensive rating at 92.6 per 100. WSU has allowed opponents to shoot and effective FG% of just 45.2% (20th in the country).
The Cougars might again be without 6-10, 250-pound center Dishon Jackson, who hasn’t played since sustaining an eye injury Jan. 8 at Utah.
“It’s 50/50,” Coach Kyle Smith said when asked about Jackson’s availability. “It’s dependent on how his vision’s doing and that stuff, but he’d be really helpful, I know that much.”
Washington State is 1-79 against the AP Top-5 since 1950 with their one win coming against #4 Oregon State, 69-51, on Feb. 16, 1980. The Cougs are 38-102 at home against the top-25 since 1950 but have won two of the last four at home with wins over #8 Oregon, 72-61, in 2020 and over #24 UCLA, 81-73, last season.
Expert Prediction
- Arizona 74, Washington State 68
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