NCAA basketball games online on which you can bet at SBG public betting NCAA basketball sportsbook include the Arizona State Sun Devils at the UCLA Bruins on Thursday, January 19th at Pauley Pavilion.
The Sun Devils
The Sun Devils lost for the third time – and second straight – in conference play, against Arizona Thursday last. Obinna Oleka had 22 points and Tra Holder scored 20, and ASU intermittently played better than the Wildcats in the second half, but they missed nine attempts from the three-point line in the first half. However, the Devils once again were dwarfed by the opposition – quite literally speaking. The Utah Utes, to whom ASU lost in their previous game, are big, and the Wildcats are even bigger. Does this qualify as bullying? Sadly, in basketball you can’t just tell other team to go pick one someone their own size.
Jethro Tshisumpa
ASU started 6-foot-10 Jethro Tshisumpa, but 6’10” is not 7’. And Arizona’s Dusan Ristic and Lauri Markkanen are seven foot tall. And you can’t teach that. The Sun Devils also tried switching to a zone, but it was nothing but a temporary solution. Eventually ASU started connecting with the threes and played good defense, though it was to no avail. The Sun Devils fell 75-91 to the Wildcats, and if that was the best they could do against a team ranked 14th, they should be in for some serious public betting NCAA basketball trouble when they face No. 3 UCLA.
The Bruins
The Bruins almost suffered an upset to the aforementioned Utes seldom seen in NCAA basketball games online. The hard fought game was tied in nine different occasions and the lead changed hands 12 times. The Bruins defended poorly throughout the night, almost rendering the offensive effort moot. Lonzo Ball, Thomas Welsh, and Bryce Alford kept bailing out the defense, which at the very least ran enough interference so that Utah’s Kyle Kuzma missed a three-pointer in the last seconds of the game. UCLA scraped by 83-82 and extended their winning streak to five games. One thing that the public betting NCAA basketball can be sure about the Bruins is that head coach Steve Alford will make objective – if not necessarily correct decisions.
For example, he pulled his own son Bryce from the game in favor of Aaron Holiday. “We wanted to be long, we wanted to be even more athletic, we were only guarding for five seconds” coach Alford said, “so we went with that lineup.” This time, it proved to be the right call. If you’re going to defend as little as possible, it might as well be at the proper time. Back to offense, junior center Welsh may not be as flashy as Ball or related to the coach, but he might be the one to cause ASU more grief. As mentioned above, the Sun Devils struggle against big men, and the seven-foot Welsh is even harder to defend against, what with his being a throwback to an era when mid-range jump shots were the bee’s knees. All things considered, this should be one of this week’s most interesting NCAA basketball games online.