It’s been a struggle for the Oregon Ducks this season. Oregon came into this year with high hopes and a Top 5 ranking, but this side has been unable to live up to its billing. Many believed that Dillon Brooks’ return to the lineup would spark this team, but the Ducks haven’t looked like the same team we saw last season. Instead, Oregon is struggling to defeat lesser tier foes and there are legitimate concerns about how the Ducks will perform in PAC-12 play. The Ducks have just two more games before they find out and the first of the two will be against the UNLV Rebels.
At 11 p.m. ET, tune into ESPN2 for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Saturday, December 17, 2016, at the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter in Portland. We will have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Saturday schedule.
College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
UNLV took care of business against Incarnate Word on Wednesday night but had been destroyed in its previous two outings. The Rebels got doubled up by Duke last Saturday and got walloped by 24 points when they played Arizona State on the road. Despite those struggles, they are 6-3-1 ATS on the season.
Oregon may be 9-2 this season, but is just 4-6 ATS and the Ducks have failed to cover five of their last seven. The Ducks have been favored in each game this season, but have been tested by bad teams like Boise State and Alabama and suffered an embarrassing defeat to Georgetown.
Last Year’s Meeting
These two sides met in Nevada last year and UNLV got the better of Oregon 80-69 despite being a small underdog. The Rebels three-guard lineup proved difficult for the Ducks to stop and UNLV’s three starting guards ended up scoring 49 of the team’s 80 points on 16 of 27 shooting.
However, this year’s UNLV team doesn’t even resemble the side that knocked off Oregon last season. A little over a month after the Rebels’ win last year, the team shockingly fired Dave Rice and replaced him with Marvin Menzies. Menzies had never registered a win in the NCAA Tournament during his nine-year tenure at New Mexico State and missed the Big Dance altogether last year.
UNLV is already missing Rice, that much is clear. The Rebels are clearly lacking something they have yet to find this season and while they may eventually right the ship under Menzies, this team is a far cry from where they were last year.
Player to Watch
While Brooks has struggled to return to the level he was playing at last season, it has been Chris Boucher that has bene getting it done for the Ducks. Boucher leads the team in points, rebounds, blocks, and field goal percentage and has been a rock for Oregon in spite of its woes.
Boucher has been the only constant for this team and without him, the Ducks would be in a lot worse shape. He showed just how valuable he is to the team when he went off against Montana on Tuesday night. Boucher scored 23 points, pulled down 19 rebounds, and swatted away 5 Grizzlies’ shots in single-handedly winning the game for Oregon.
Fouls have been an issue for Boucher during his career and if he gets in trouble, the results aren’t good. He has recorded four or more fouls in five games this season and in those games the Ducks are just 1-4 ATS.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
Both these teams are a mess and have had trouble scoring in comparison to what was expected of them heading into the year. That makes the under a solid play in this one. The total won’t come out until the day of the game but if you see an over/under in the 150s grab the under in a hurry.
College Basketball Odds: Oregon 74, UNLV 62
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