Utah vs USC Odds: Can Utah Make a Statement in SoCal?
Struggling Utah Utes Meet Troubled USC Trojans
It’s been a difficult two weeks for the Utah Utes and USC Trojans.
Utah is more used to winning. However, the Utes have lost four of their last five games, including a three-overtime game against Arizona at home last Thursday.
The Utes are now 15-9 and just 6-7 in Pac-12 play after starting the season 11-2.
Meanwhile, USC is just 9-15. The Trojans are just 3-10 in conference play and have only won one of their last nine games.
But despite the losing record and the struggles, the Trojans are favorites at home, sitting at -1.5. Oddsmakers expect this game to be competitive and have a total of 148.5.
Which Utah vs USC odds should you bet tonight? We’ve got the answers below.
Utah Utes vs USC Trojans 
Location: Galen Center
Day/Time:
Streaming: FS1
Utah vs USC Odds & Trends
The Utah Utes are just 1-5 on the road this year. They’re also 11-13 against the spread and have hit the Over in 13 of 24 games this season.
Conversely, the Trojans are just 10-14 against the spread, but the Over has hit in 16 of 24 games this year. While USC is bad on the road, they have a winning record at home, winning six of 11 games this season.
USC has defeated Utah in five straight games. The Trojans have covered against the spread in the last four while being favorites in all of those games.
Can Utah Turn Things Around?
The Utes are in a slump. Utah lost its last two games at home, including a brutal 85-77 loss to Arizona State on Saturday. Arizona State isn’t even ranked as a top 100 team via KenPom. But at home, against the Sun Devils, Utah allowed an early lead to get away and looked horrible to start the second half.
The Utes want to play their best basketball down the stretch. The stretch is coming with seven games remaining on the regular NCAAB season schedule.
Utah will be on the road for five of the final seven games. So unless they can earn more than one road victory this season, the Utes are likely watching the beginning of their downfall.
Andy Enfield Could Be On The Hot Seat
The Ohio State Buckeyes just fired Chris Holtmann as head coach of the basketball program. Now, there’s speculation that USC’s Andy Enfield will be next.
After this season, USC will be in the Big Ten. It will be a much harder conference to perform in and be consistent in.
If Enfield can’t succeed in the Pac-12, many think he’ll struggle with this program in the Big Ten.
Enfield has been at USC for 11 seasons. However, this season, Enfield seemingly added a roster full of talent and hasn’t even gotten to 10 wins this season.
On the other hand, you can look at Enfield’s recruiting and hope that he continues to bring in the top players. Eventually, with great players, it’ll have to click at some point.
It’ll be interesting to see what the Trojans decided to do with Enfield this season. After all, he recruited some massive names into the program, which can’t be overlooked.
Expect Solid Three-Point Shooting Tonight
The Utah Utes and USC Trojans don’t shoot threes at an extremely high rate. However, both teams still shoot threes at an above-average rate, each making at least 35% from downtown.
Utah has nailed 36.5% from three, while USC has allowed teams to shoot 37% from downtown this season. On the other hand, USC has nailed 35.2% from three, while the Utes have given up 35.6% from downtown.
Utah still has the better offensive numbers all around. The Utes don’t get to the foul line often but still shoot 53.7% from inside the arc and have earned 28.6% of offensive rebounds while limiting turnovers to 16.5%.
With USC allowing 32.6% of offensive rebounds, Utah figures to add many offensive rebounds and second chances against USC. The Utes aren’t effective at the foul line, but that’s not a major issue because, again, Utah doesn’t get to the foul line much anyway.
On the flip side, USC has a 51.3% effective field goal percentage, hitting 50.4% from inside the arc. The Trojans are most efficient on the offensive glass, but the Utes are also better at limiting second chances, giving up only 26.9% of offensive rebounds.
Utah has also held teams to 46.3% from inside the arc and has done even better at keeping teams away from the foul line.
The Trojans also aren’t great at foul shooting, hitting under 69% from the charity stripe this season.
But while USC turns the ball over at 18.4% of the time, the Utes have added only 15% of turnovers per game this season.
Both teams match up well in specific categories. But overall, it’s fair to assume that both teams have success from downtown in this game.
The college basketball current standings won’t have either team at the top this season in the Pac-12. However, the Pac-12 NCAA basketball betting lines have some value in this game. We’re looking strictly at the NCAAB predictions for the Utah vs USC odds.
Let’s roll with the Over 148.5 (-110) for this Pac-12 showdown. Both teams desperately need to win this game and will have open looks from three throughout the game.
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