College Basketball Odds - Georgia Tech vs. UCLA Game Preview

The start of college basketball season couldn’t come any sooner for the UCLA Bruins. With the football team seemingly ready to quit on Jim Mora, basketball is there to pick up the banner for the boys in blue. Although UCLA no longer has Lonzo Ball, T.J. Leaf, Bruce Alford, and Isaac Hamilton, big things are expected from the Bruins this season. The Bruins will kick off the season in China, taking on Josh Pastner’s Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

This war on the floor will go down Friday, November 10, 2017, at 11:30 p.m. ET at Baoshan Sports Center in Shanghai, China. The game will be televised live on ESPN. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Friday schedule.

Opening College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu

Although there is no line out yet for this one, the Bruins are likely to be favored even though they are not the team they were last season. UCLA is ranked No. 21 in the country, while Georgia Tech didn’t even get a Top 25 vote in the AP poll.

This is the third PAC-12 China game in as many years. In the first iteration, Washington knocked off Texas and last season, Stanford got the better of Harvard. Larry Scott and the conference have done well to expand their brand there and UCLA might have somewhat of a home court advantage.

Player to Watch

Jaylen Hands has some pretty big shoes to fill as UCLA’s new point guard. It’s not often that a one-and-done player makes a tremendous impact, but Lonzo Ball did just that during his time in Westwood.

Hands was a five-star recruit and a McDonald’s All-American and will be the trigger man for an offense that is going to try to run the floor as well as it did last year. He has blistering speed and is not afraid to drive to the basket and challenge the big men in the paint. While he isn’t the passer that Ball was (Who is?), Hands is a much more aggressive player and is a more natural shooter.

It’s going to take some time for him to get his feet under him at the collegiate level, but he has a lot of potential.

Key Stats

Georgia Tech is looking to build off of a successful season. The Yellow Jackets went 17-15 in the regular season last year, but made it to the NIT and got all the way to the NIT Championship Game before falling to TCU in the final.

The Yellow Jackets have their three leading scorers back from that team and are looking to turn that experience into an NCAA Tournament run this season.

Josh Okogie had a very good freshman campaign for the Yellow Jackets and was the team’s leading scorer. Okogie had some consistency issues but dominated against Florida State and North Carolina State and was a pivotal part of those victories.

Senior Ben Lammers came out of nowhere to have a phenomenal junior season and is now looked at as one of the team’s keys as a senior. Lammers nearly averaged a double-double last season with 14.2 PPG and 9.2 RPG. He was great on the defensive end too, with 3.4 blocks a game and limited his fouls.

Finally, there’s Tadric Jackson. He didn’t play a lot of minutes, but put up a lot of shots. Jackson was who the team looked to if it needed a creator last season. However, he is an atrocious free throw shooter.

Free College Basketball ATS Picks

This is as good a spot as any to back Georgia Tech. Although the Bruins are ranked, they are a young team without any real experience and might shy away from the moment. Take the experienced Yellow Jackets on the moneyline.

College Basketball Odds: Georgia Tech 74, UCLA 70

BookMaker.eu offers play-by-play betting odds for live sporting events every day! The user-friendly wagering interface on your smartphone provides an easy way to place bets on the go. Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute, so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker.eu!