There will only be two top-25 pairings going in primetime at online sportsbooks on Saturday night; the No. 14 Oregon Ducks squaring off against the No. 24 Arizona Wildcats is one of them. If it plays out anything like the first meeting in Eugene at the beginning of January, college basketball bettors will be in for a treat after Dana Altman’s kids scored the 74-73 overtime win but failed to cover the closing 3-point spread. Sean Miller’s squad sat a full game back of both the Ducks and Colorado Buffaloes for Pac-12 supremacy heading into Thursday night’s home tilt with the Beavers. Should everything hold true heading into Saturday, this will arguably be Nico Mannion and company’s most important game of the season if it’s to compete for conference title bragging rights.
This pivotal Pac-12 throw down will take place on Saturday, February 22, 2020 with tip-off set for 9 p.m. ET from the McKale Center in Tucson, AZ. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN. So make sure to fill out your March Madness Bracket today!
Odds Analysis
The Ducks invade Tempe for Thursday night’s tilt with the Sun Devils off a huge week. It started off with a gargantuan comeback win over Colorado to tie the Buffaloes atop the Pac-12 standings, and then concluded with an 80-62 trucking of Utah to close the week out in style. Going back to the win over CU, Oregon was forced to battle back from a 9 point halftime deficit and did so by way of changing up its defensive mentality over the game’s final 20 minutes to fluster the Buffs into 16 total turnovers that helped spur the comeback. The Ducks hit the road having split their eight true road games (3-5 ATS) with the under cashing in five of those matchups.
Since dropping a shocking 65-52 decision to UCLA as decided 12.5-point home chalk, the Wildcats have looked like a team that could go on to win the Pac-12 regular season title should everything fall their way. Even before that, Miller’s troops were kicking butt and taking names with the lone non-cover of the five wins earned dating back to January 30 coming against a USC squad it held a 15+ point lead against with less than six minutes remaining. It ultimately went on to win 85-80 and failed to cover the 10-point spread. Other than those successive snafus, Zona has been nothing short of dominant in its own gym in conference play logging wins and covers against ASU, Utah and Colorado winning by an average of 21.7 points per game.
Player to Watch
The Ducks have relied upon the scoring acumen of Payton Pritchard and Chris Duarte for a bulk of the season. While that duo has been able to tote the mail more times than not, the miles racked up look to be taking a toll; at least for Duarte. Averaging 13.4 points per game for the season, the junior looks to have hit a wall having failed to surpass that impost in each of the Ducks last three games. He shockingly just failed to log a single point last time out in the Ducks 18-point win and cover over the Utes. Thankfully, Will Richardson has seen his contributions improve exponentially throughout Duarte’s cold spell with the frosh averaging better than 15 points in his last six games to go along with 2.2 assists and 3.3 rebounds. If all three of these guys finally get on the same page with one another, Oregon will be a team nobody will want to contend with as well-coached and athletic the team has proven to be at both ends of the court.
Prediction
I don’t know what it is, but the Ducks simply just have the Wildcats number. Oregon’s taken four straight and seven of the last 10 meetings and just saw its four-game cover streak snapped in the first meetings 1-point win. As hot Arizona is currently running, most of the wins have come against the dregs of the conference. Even the win at Stanford has an asterisk next to it with Oscar Da Silva missing the game. On top of that, the Ducks just have a knack for coming out on top in every close game. It’s won all five played games that went to overtime, and has defeated the Wildcats in two of its last three visits to Tucson. After just getting back in the Pac-12 title race last week, I don’t foresee them falling back out of it so quickly. Ducks extend their win streak to five straight over the Cats – hit the $-Line!
College Basketball Pick: Oregon 68, Arizona 67
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