The Gonzaga Bulldogs continue to roll through another season of West Coast Conference play. Their current record (15-0, 6-0 WCC) has them headed for another high seed in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. They had a scare at St. Mary’s back on January 16 but came back to win by 14, and then they obliterated the College of the Pacific this past Saturday, winning by 46 points. Next up is a trip down the coast to face the University of San Diego. The Toreros (2-6, 1-3 WCC), who has struggled just to get games in, thanks to COVID-19 issues, and when they are playing, they’re losing. Their losses have been close, as their three conference setbacks have come by a combined 17 points, including an overtime loss at Loyola Marymount. They did find the winning column in conference play for the first time on Saturday as they won at Portland, 78-70.
Can the Toreros give the Bulldogs a challenge, or will it be more easy going for Gonzaga? Don’t miss our college basketball betting preview.
NCAAB: Gonzaga at San Diego (January 28)
When: Thursday, January 28, 2021, 9:00 pm ET
Where: Jenny Craig Pavilion, San Diego
TV: No National Broadcast
Radio: No National Radio
Live Stream: WCCSports.com
Why should you bet on the Bulldogs?
After Gonzaga got off to a slow start on defense against St. Mary’s last week, coach Mark Few encouraged his team to amp things up on that side of the ball. So while the 95 points that the Bulldogs scored, led by 22 points from Drew Timme and a near triple-double out of freshman Jalen Suggs. Sugs had nine points, 11 boards and eight assists.
The most impressive stat for the night, though, was the 27.9 percent that Pacific shot from the floor in the loss. The Tigers tried to run a grindingly slow pace, but its inability to make shots doomed their attempts to keep the game close. Pacific went just 2 of 16 from behind the arc. Gonzaga also won the battle of the boards, grabbing 50 rebounds to just 37 for Pacific. In the early going, Gonzaga sprinted out to a 26-5 lead, with Pacific making just two of their 14 shots to start the game. Over that same time frame, Gonzaga shot 60 percent.
Why should you put your money on the Toreros?
Josh Parrish led the way for San Diego in their win at Portland, going 9 of 11 from the floor and pulling down eight rebounds. Joey Calcaterra had a dozen points, and Marion Humphrey (11), Vladimir Pinchuk (10) and Finn Sullivan (10) all joined Parrish and Calcaterra in double figures for the Toreros. Their only defensive lapses came in their inability to keep tabs on Ahmed Ali, who nailed six three-pointers for Portland, en route to a career best in points, with 32.
It was impressive to see San Diego end a four-game skid, but Portland remains winless in West Coast Conference play and have now lost seven games in a row. An eight-point win against the bottom feeders of the conference is a nice step, but it should not give sports bettors confidence in a matchup against the #1 team in the nation.
Final Score and Prediction
As we saw in Gonzaga’s games against Pepperdine and St. Mary’s last week, spending a couple of months playing teams that are not national contenders can lead to the occasional lapse in attention. Their defensive lapses against those two teams were apparently corrected in the way they shut down Pacific no Saturday. I don’t see Gonzaga already slipping into slightly lazy defense just a week later, so I like this game to turn into another Gonzaga laugher. I predict a final score of Gonzaga 90, San Diego 65.
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