The No. 2 Gonzaga Bulldogs (+600 to win the national title) are barely being challenged in the WCC. They will get that bigger and harder tests in March, but for now, they will have to be content on facing poor, hapless teams in their conference. Still, that doesn’t make the Bulldogs immune to crazy upset losses. They have the BYU Cougars – the second best team in the WCC – coming over to Spokane, looking to soil Gonzaga’s record. The Cougars are +100,000 to win college basketball’s top prize.
Betting on the BYU Cougars (18-10 Overall / 10-3 Conference)
The Cougars lost to Gonzaga in Spokane late last month to the tune of a 93-63 loss, but they didn’t let that annihilation to rattle them. Instead, BYU went on to beat their next five opponents, including the Loyola Marymount Lions on the road on Feb. 16, 70-62. The Cougars were behind by six points to the Lions at the half, but came out like a house on fire in the second half, scoring 40 points in the final 20 minutes of the game, while allowing Loyola Marymount to notch just 26 during that time frame. The Cougars are a team to reckon with in the WCC mostly because of their offense that ranks third in the league in efficiency. They are second with a 53.7 effective field goal percentage and third in 3-point shooting percentage. They went cold offensively in the loss to Gonzaga, though, as the Cougars shot just 26.9 percent from the floor.
BYU is 3-0 against the spread (ATS) in its last three road games.
Betting on the Gonzaga Bulldogs (25-2 Overall / 12-0 Conference)
The WCC would have been a more fun league to watch without Gonzaga. It’s not an indictment of the Bulldogs, but rather a compliment for the team, which has been dominating the conference even with their eyes closed. The Bulldogs have the highest winning margin in the nation with plus-25, largely because they have been crushing their opponents in WCC in merciless fashion. BYU certainly knows this, because of its 30-point loss to the Bulldogs back in January. Gonzaga, however, struggled – relatively speaking – a bit in its most recent outing, which was a 79-67 road win over the San Diego Toreros on the road last Saturday. In that game, the Bulldogs entered the halftime tied with the Toreros. Nevertheless, they finished the contest with a 58.2 percent shooting from the field. Gonzaga have the most prolific offense in the nation, as it is averaging 90.2 points per game on 52.8 field goal percentage – also tops in Division I basketball.
Gonzaga is 3-0 ATS in its last three games against BYU.
