UCLA vs Ohio State: Odds, Predictions, and Best Bet for Saturday, January 17

The UCLA Bruins will head east to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in a Big Ten battle on Saturday, January 17. Both teams have superior offenses, and both love to play at a fast pace. Will we see plenty of heart-stopping dunks and raining threes?

How will this one play out? We’ll dive into which team has the edge in each statistical category. Get our predictions and best player prop below. Best of luck, sports betting family.

Opening Odds for UCLA vs Ohio State

Oddsmakers are making Ohio State a small favorite in this game, as the opening line priced the Buckeyes as a 2.5-point favorite on Friday afternoon. However, most sportsbooks were flooded with lots of early money on Ohio State. That’s why the Buckeyes are now only favored by 3.5 points at a few shops at the time of this writing.

The books are expecting a higher amount of scoring in this game. The opening total was 147.5, and that’s still where we’re sitting. That’s a truckload of points, but I sure wouldn’t want to bet on the Under with these two high-flying offenses.

Will the Bruins Win 3 in a Row?

UCLA is a solid 12-5 on the season and 4-2 in Big Ten play. The Bruins are coming off a nice 11-point win against Penn State on the road on Wednesday night. They also got a dominant victory over Maryland just a few days before that on their home court.

Senior forward Tyler Bilodeau leads the Bruins in scoring, as he’s averaging 17.7 points per game and shooting more than 52% from the field. UCLA has a ton of depth, as five of their players average in double figures this year. Oddly enough, a guard (Eric Dailey) leads the team in rebounding.

UCLA has been pretty decent on the defensive end, as they rank 25th in defending the three and 44th in points allowed so far. Xavier Booker is a pretty solid big man, and he leads the team in blocks per game. Guards Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark do a good job of creating turnovers.

Can Ohio State Finally Show Some Consistency?

Ohio State brought back plenty of talent this season, but they’ve been a whole lot more inconsistent than I thought they would be. The Buckeyes are 11-5 but just 3-3 in conference play. They’re going to have to step things up if they want a decent seeding once March Madness rolls around.

Bruce Thornton is the main man of the Ohio State offense, as he leads the team in both scoring and assists. The 6’2″ senior is coming off an incredible 28-point performance against Washington last Sunday in a losing effort. Thornton gets a lot of help from Devin Royal (13.9 ppg) and John Mobley Jr (13.8 ppg).

The Buckeyes’ defense has been okay in some areas and not so good in others. They rank 24th in 3-point defense but just 146th at defending two-point shots. One edge OSU may have in this game is their ability to crash the boards. They rank 115th in rebounding while UCLA ranks just 285th!

Best Bet: Ohio State -2.5 (-110) (Fanatics) (1 Unit)

This should be a fun Big Ten battle on Saturday afternoon on CBS. I like the Buckeyes quite a bit in this spot, even though they burned us a few weeks ago at home. I made the pure line OSU -4, but some other factors have me projecting a 7-point Buckeyes win.

This is an awful travel spot for UCLA. Yes, I know they were already in the Eastern Time zone for their win against Penn State on Wednesday. However, that was a night game, and this is a rough 1 PM Eastern time tipoff. It’s going to feel like 10 AM to the Bruins in this one.

So, we have a rough travel spot and a back-to-back roadie spot for UCLA. Meanwhile, Ohio State comes in fresh as a daisy after a 6-day break. That’s a 3-day rest advantage for the Buckeyes. Let’s play OSU and hope for big games from star guard Bruce Thornton (20.5 ppg) and star big man Devin Royal (6 rpg). Good luck, sports betting family! Let’s cash!