Courtside Players Club NCAAB 1-3 Units (1/17/25)

NCAAB

1 Pick (3 Units)

9PM EST: UCLA -6.5 (3 Units).

These are spots we like to back. UCLA's one of the best defensive teams in the nation with a not-so-great offense. Iowa has one of the best offenses in the league but a very bad defense. Refs are and will forever be a little biased towards the home teams. There's a stadium full of people supporting it and that influence matters. UCLA plays a physical brand of basketball and that's just not something this Iowa teams built for. They're small and ranked 314th in rebound rate. They're also 0-3 on the road this year. They lost at USC by 10 their last time out and got smoked 85-116 at Wisconsin the road trip before that. UCLA's also in desperate need of a win. After a hot start to the season that saw them beat Oregon and Arizona, they've lost 5 of their last 6. They've also lost each of their last 2 Home Games vs Michigan and North Carolina. Longtime Head Coach Mick Cronin has been very critical of his players of late. He's well respected with plenty of accolades under his belt, including a Final Four trip while at UCLA. It's nut up or shut up time in a very winnable spot at Home and we think he'll get through to his team.