NCAAM Betting – Cal at (11) Utah

California Golden Bears at (11) Utah Utes (-18, 124.5 o/u)

It has been a season of runs for the California Golden Bears (16-9, 6-6 Pac-12). After dropping six in a row early in its Pac-12 schedule, the team has rebounded with five straight wins.

Tonight, they will look to make it six when they visit the No. 11 Utah Utes (19-4, 9-2 Pac-12) at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City (8:30 p.m. Eastern).

While the win streak has been nice for the Golden Bears, it isn’t necessarily indicative of a marked turnaround in the team’s play. Cal has had the good fortune of facing the bottom four teams in the conference (Washington State, Washington, USC, and Colorado) over its last five games – in addition to UCLA – and all five have been decided by single-digits.

That said, wins are wins, and sophomore guard Jordan Matthews – who put up 19 points against Colorado on Thursday – likes where the team is headed.

“We’re coming together at the end of the year and that’s what you want,” Matthews said. “It’s my second go-round in college basketball, it’s a really good feeling to have a five-game winning streak in February. Hopefully, we can roll it into March.”

Utah, meanwhile, has a three-game win streak of its own on the go.  After a surprise loss at UCLA on January 29, the Utes have righted the ship with wins over USC, Colorado, and Stanford.  Utah pummeled a decent Stanford team last time out (75-59), getting 15 points and five boards from guard Delon Wright.

The beatdown against the Cardinal was the third straight lop-sided affair for the Utes; they almost doubled-up on USC (67-39) and then ran away from Colorado (79-51) in their two previous games.

“For these young men, that’s the experience they need to have,” Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said. “There’s a lot of pride from years past and it’s just fun to be part of getting it kick-started again.”

Turning to the trends, the total has stayed under in four of the last five between Utah and Cal, and Utah lost but covered in the last two meetings (both of which took place in California). On the year, both teams have crushed the number; California is 11-4 ATS, while Utah is a 17-5.

The Golden Bears have been getting wins lately, but they haven’t been terribly convincing and they haven’t faced the likes of Utah in ages. That said, 18 points looks a little high for a confident Cal team. Cal and the points looks like better value.

(Photo credit: John Martinez Pavliga (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/]. Photo has been cropped.)