College Basketball
Here are my best bets for Nebraska vs UCLA on Saturday, January 4th.
Nebraska vs #15 UCLA
Mick Cronin and UCLA travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to take on the cornhuskers in what should be a fierce Big Ten matchup. This will be UCLA's introductory game as one of the conference's newest members, and I think they are in for a rude awakening.Â
UCLA is one of the nation's premier defenses. They have the 4th and 6th highest rated defensive efficiency according to KenPom and EvanMiya, respectively. Along with this, they boast the nation's highest turnover % at 26.6. It's safe to say that they are one of the more ferocious defenses in the country, however, they really struggle to score at times. According to BartTorvik, their offensive efficiency is all the way down at 77th best in the nation.Â
The biggest takeaway in this game though is their offensive style of play. UCLA scores the majority of their points from 2-point range, where they shoot 52.8% on those attempts. This plays right into what Nebraska wants their opponents to do on defense. Nebraska allows only 41.4% of their opponents scoring from 2-point range, in large-part due to their great 2-point defense (opponents shoot 45.7%). Because of this, Nebraska forces their opponents to score from beyond the arc in order to beat them. This does not bode well for UCLA who has the 284th lowest 3-point rate in the nation, further proof that shooting from deep isn't a part of their identity.Â
On offense, Nebraska has the 42nd highest free throw rate in the nation (40.1% of their attempts come from the line) where they shoot 76.5% which ranks 55th highest across D1. They should be able to get to the line often against this UCLA squad that ranks just 211th in free throw rate allowed.Â
Simply put, this is a bad matchup for UCLA in a raucous environment and I fully expect the cornhuskers to come out of this one with a win. Because of this, I am taking Nebraska on the moneyline at +100 for 1.5u.Â
Additionally, I will be taking a stab at under 15.5 points for UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau at -135Â to win 1.25u. Bilodeau is the bruins main offensive weapon, taking roughly 28.6% of the teams shot attempts. However, the main takeaway here is that almost 3/4 of those attempts are from inside the arc. As noted above, Nebraska's defensive scheme looks to take these shots away and, therefore, I believe Bilodeau will have a tough time scoring. Some notable high-usage big man scoring outputs vs Nebraska: Ryan Kalkbrenner - 4 points, Oumar Ballo - 8 points, Mitchell Saxen - 12 points.Â
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Here are my best bets for Nebraska vs UCLA on Saturday, January 4th.
Nebraska vs #15 UCLA
Mick Cronin and UCLA travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to take on the cornhuskers in what should be a fierce Big Ten matchup. This will be UCLA's introductory game as one of the conference's newest members, and I think they are in for a rude awakening.Â
UCLA is one of the nation's premier defenses. They have the 4th and 6th highest rated defensive efficiency according to KenPom and EvanMiya, respectively. Along with this, they boast the nation's highest turnover % at 26.6. It's safe to say that they are one of the more ferocious defenses in the country, however, they really struggle to score at times. According to BartTorvik, their offensive efficiency is all the way down at 77th best in the nation.Â
The biggest takeaway in this game though is their offensive style of play. UCLA scores the majority of their points from 2-point range, where they shoot 52.8% on those attempts. This plays right into what Nebraska wants their opponents to do on defense. Nebraska allows only 41.4% of their opponents scoring from 2-point range, in large-part due to their great 2-point defense (opponents shoot 45.7%). Because of this, Nebraska forces their opponents to score from beyond the arc in order to beat them. This does not bode well for UCLA who has the 284th lowest 3-point rate in the nation, further proof that shooting from deep isn't a part of their identity.Â
On offense, Nebraska has the 42nd highest free throw rate in the nation (40.1% of their attempts come from the line) where they shoot 76.5% which ranks 55th highest across D1. They should be able to get to the line often against this UCLA squad that ranks just 211th in free throw rate allowed.Â
Simply put, this is a bad matchup for UCLA in a raucous environment and I fully expect the cornhuskers to come out of this one with a win. Because of this, I am taking Nebraska on the moneyline at +100 for 1.5u.Â
Additionally, I will be taking a stab at under 15.5 points for UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau at -135Â to win 1.25u. Bilodeau is the bruins main offensive weapon, taking roughly 28.6% of the teams shot attempts. However, the main takeaway here is that almost 3/4 of those attempts are from inside the arc. As noted above, Nebraska's defensive scheme looks to take these shots away and, therefore, I believe Bilodeau will have a tough time scoring. Some notable high-usage big man scoring outputs vs Nebraska: Ryan Kalkbrenner - 4 points, Oumar Ballo - 8 points, Mitchell Saxen - 12 points.Â
If you guys enjoyed this article feel free to like and comment! Also, be on the lookout for more content like this!
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