Wednesday Dec. 17th College Basketball Betting Picks and Predictions

Former Pac-12 conference mates Arizona State and UCLA are staging a reunion Wednesday night and it is odd the Sun Devils want to continue the rivalry. You see, the Bruins have won the past five meetings and eight of the last nine.

Alabama is in action against South Florida and the Crimson Tide don’t look like a team that can match last season’s Elite Eight run. But Labaron Philon Jr. has stepped up to become one of the top players in the Southeastern Conference.

We will also look at the matchup between Creighton and Xavier in the Big East opener for both squads. The Bluejays have significantly fallen from recent seasons while the Musketeers are looking for their sixth straight victory.

ARIZONA STATE SUN DEVILS AT UCLA BRUINS

Perhaps the Sun Devils discovered the formula to get a breakthrough victory against UCLA. Fall behind by 17 and have coach Bobby Hurley ejected in the final seconds of the first half. That worked well Saturday against Santa Clara as Arizona State matched the largest halftime comeback in school history with an 82-79 victory.

Maurice Odom is doing it all for Arizona State (9-2) and leads the team in scoring (16.7), assists (6.0), 3-point baskets (32) and steals (19). UCLA’s Donovan Dent is coming off his first double-double (12 points, 10 assists) of the season in his club’s 82-72 loss to Gonzaga on Saturday.

Tyler Bilodeau is enjoying a stellar season for the Bruins (7-3) and had a season-best 24 points against Gonzaga to raise his team-best average to 16.6. Expect Bilodeau to stand out again and help UCLA post a double-digit victory.

UCLA minus 8.5-point spread -118 (DraftKings)

SOUTH FLORIDA BULLS AT ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE

Philon is carrying the Crimson Tide (7-3) with eight 20-point efforts and he leads Alabama in scoring (21.7), assists (5.4), 3-pointers (22) and steals (13). He had 24 points and 10 assists) on Saturday when the Crimson Tide were trounced 96-75 by top-ranked Arizona.

The Crimson Tide notched a season-low point total, were outscored by 23 points in the second half, were dominated 52-32 on the boards and committed 15 turnovers to Arizona’s four in a truly rough night. Alabama is in need of a turnaround effort and that should be accomplished against the Bulls (6-4), who have seen leading scorer Joseph Pinion (14.6) make a career-best six 3-pointers on three occasions this season.

USF has five double-digit scorers while showing good balance for coach Bryan Hodgson, a former assistant of Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats at Buffalo and Alabama. Oats won’t take it easy against his good pal with the evidence being the Crimson Tide averaged 88.5 points while beating Hodgson’s Arkansas State teams the past two seasons.

Alabama minus 14.5-point spread, -112 (DraftKings)

CREIGHTON BLUEJAYS AT XAVIER MUSKETEERS

The Bluejays (5-5) have made five straight NCAA Tournament appearances and won 20 or more games in 10 straight seasons but look like they need to petition former All-American big man Ryan Kalkbrenner to return to campus for a sixth season. Losses of 27 points to Gonzaga and 18 to Iowa State were bad but being obliterated by 21 points at Nebraska is no bueno.

Josh Dix (12.3) is the lone Creighton player scoring in double digits and that’s not going to be enough firepower to hang with the Musketeers (8-3) in Cincinnati. Xavier has beaten West Virginia and Cincinnati during its winning streak and scored 88 and 96 points in two other games during the stretch.

Tre Carroll poured in a career-best 30 points against the Bearcats and has a team-best 16.9 scoring average. The teams split two meetings last season with the Musketeers routing the Bluejays 83-61 in Cincinnati.

Xavier minus 2.5-point spread, -115 (DraftKings)