Are The Wildcats Frauds After Beatdown on Sunday?
The Colorado vs Arizona Trends Indicate We'll Have An Awesome Pac-12 Matchup Tonight
The Colorado Buffaloes will visit the Arizona Wildcats in a massive Pac-12 matchup tonight.
The Buffaloes only have two losses to Florida State and Colorado State on the season. However, they’ve won six straight games, including multiple Pac-12 matchups against Washington and Washington State.
They’ll have their biggest challenge of the season, facing a top-ten Arizona team.
The Wildcats were most recently upset by Stanford on the road, 100-82. Arizona began the season with wins against Duke, Michigan State, and Wisconsin. However, Arizona has since traded wins for losses over the last five games.
Arizona has lost to Purdue and Florida Atlantic and now has three losses on the season after Sunday’s loss to Stanford.
If Arizona consistently trades wins for losses, the Wildcats will be in good shape tonight.
The Wildcats are listed as -10.5 (-120) favorites, with the total currently at 165.5. The Over is juiced to -115.
However, it’s clear that Arizona is expected to get back on track at home.
Let’s take a look at the Colorado vs Arizona trends for this Pac-12 matchup.
Buffaloes vs Wildcats 
Day/Time:
Location: McKale Center, Tucson, AZ
Streaming: Watch Live Sports
Colorado vs Arizona Trends
The Buffaloes are 11-2 on the season. However, they’re just 8-5 against the spread. The Buffaloes began the season well but didn’t cover the spread consistently until December.
Since December, Colorado is 5-1 against the spread heading into this game.
Meanwhile, the total has hit the Over in seven of 13 games this year for the Buffaloes. They’re 9-0 at home but just 0-1 on the road.
On the other hand, Arizona lost the last game as a 12.5-point favorite on the road against Stanford. However, the Wildcats are still 10-3 against the spread this season. It’s just that those three losses against the spread came over the last five games.
The Wildcats have also hit the Over in seven of 13 college basketball matchups and have gone 6-0 at home this season. Arizona will be home for this matchup, too.
Arizona earned a 78-68 win over Colorado in February. However, Colorado earned the cover as 13-point underdogs last time out.
Eddie Lumpkin Is Looking For Pay Back!
The former TCU center, Eddie Lampkin Jr., decided to take his talents to Colorado as a senior this NCAAB season. He’s added 9.4 points with 7.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 51.7% from the field.
The big man has been terrific for Colorado early on. But he’s got some more insight on Arizona.
Two years ago, Lampkin Jr. was a redshirt freshman at TCU when the Wildcats won over TCU in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Lampkin Jr. scored 20 points against Arizona in the loss, which still remains Lampkin Jr.’s collegiate career high.
Lamkpkin hasn’t forgotten about that game. He said that he’s been waiting for this game for two years. He also acknowledged that he hopes Arizona is ready.
Arizona wasn’t ready for their last matchup against Stanford, so they’ll likely be locked in for this matchup against Colorado at home.
Arizona Dropped In Latest Men’s Basketball AP Poll
Just last week, Arizona was ranked as the fourth-best NCAAB team in the nation. However, the Wildcats fell to No. 10 in the AP Poll this week after losses to Florida Atlantic and Stanford.
Over the last three games in December, Arizona is just 1-2.
The Wildcats still have plenty of Q1 wins and will essentially be a lock to make the NCAA Tournament. But that loss to Stanford on Sunday was a wake-up call for the program.
Can Colorado Hang In Against Arizona?
The Colorado Buffaloes will turn the ball over more frequently against Arizona. Colorado has given up the ball 19.6% of the time, while Arizona has added 19.2% of turnovers.
However, the Buffaloes are still shooting an effective field goal percentage of 57.8% and have nailed nearly 41% from deep and 56.4% from inside the arc.
With Arizona allowing 34.2% from downtown, Colorado has potential from downtown. The only problem is Colorado rarely shoots the ball from three.
They’d rather score inside, where Arizona has allowed only 47.7% of shots to fall. The Wildcats have also allowed only 20.8% of offensive rebounds. That ranks fourth in the nation.
So, while Colorado has an edge from deep, it’s unlikely that the Buffaloes will use three-point shooting to their advantage in this game.
On the other hand, Colorado is just as good at limiting offensive rebounds, giving up 22% this season. The Buffaloes have held teams to a 48% effective field goal percentage, allowing teams to shoot 32.2% from three and 47.8% from inside the arc.
Overall, Colorado’s defense is almost comparable to Arizona’s. The offense is also pretty close to Arizona’s too.
The difference is that Arizona’s earning more takeaways and keeping teams off the foul line more.
That should help the Wildcats escape Colorado on their home floor.
After looking through the Colorado vs Arizona trends and the NCAAB Sagarin rankings, our college basketball betting tips are to take Arizona at -10.5 against the spread. Only take the NCAAB moneyline picks for Arizona in parlays.
For NCAAB betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.
