It’s time to continue our College Basketball odds series with a California-Stanford prediction and pick. Find out how to watch California Stanford.
The Stanford Cardinal and Cal Golden Bears have not had a pleasant first season in the ACC. The long commutes have indeed been hard to deal with, and the West Coast teams in all of the new-look conferences have run up against the reality that while the East Coast teams fly out to the West only once, the Western teams have to fly to the Eastern time zone multiple times. It’s that travel imbalance which has caused some headaches and has reinforced how weird it is for San Francisco Bay Area teams to be competing in the college basketball conference which is most centrally based in the Carolinas and the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
Now, at least, Cal and Stanford get to spend a week at home, leading into this rivalry game on Saturday. It’s a matchup in which Cal’s coach is one of Stanford’s most important basketball players. Mark Madsen was part of Stanford’s memorable and significant 1998 Final Four team. He parlayed his work for the Cardinal into a solid if unspectacular NBA career. He then went into coaching and did a great job with Utah Valley. Stanford had the chance to fire previous coach Jerod Haase and hire Madsen, but it refused to do so. Cal stepped in and happily hired a Stanford man as its coach. Madsen will walk into his old place of business at Maples Pavilion knowing his job is to make Stanford lose. It will be odd, but it’s reality in this fascinating coaching matchup against Stanford boss Kyle Smith, formerly of old Pac-12 program Washington State. There are a lot of old Pac-12 roots in this game, part of what makes it so interesting.
Here are the California-Stanford College Basketball Odds, courtesy of FanDuel
College Basketball Odds: California-Stanford Odds
California: +6.5 (-102)
Moneyline: +235
Stanford: -6.5 (-120)
Moneyline: -295
Over: 147.5 (-110)
Under: 147.5 (-110)
How to Watch California vs Stanford
Time: 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT
TV: ESPN2
*Watch college basketball LIVE with fuboTV (Get Access | Save $30)*
Why California Will Cover The Spread/Win
The Stanford Cardinal, for a brief period of time in this college hoops season, looked ascendant and seemed to be on the verge of becoming a factor in the ACC race. The Cardinal were 7-3 through their first 10 ACC games and had seemingly weathered the storm in terms of the long travel, the logistics, and the challenge of playing so many games in the Eastern time zone. Then it all fell apart. Stanford got torn to shreds at SMU, and then it went home and lost to Wake Forest. The Trees have lost four of their last five games and look nothing like the team which produced a four-game ACC winning streak earlier in the season, winning on the road at North Carolina and looking like a threat in the new conference. The spread should not be as high as 6.5 points. Cal, in a rivalry game, can and should cover.
Why Stanford Will Cover The Spread/Win
Stanford is still the better team than Cal, which has been hit hard by injuries. Cal has not been able to put its best five players on the floor for a large portion of this season. Cal has potential when everyone is healthy, but everyone has rarely been healthy at the same time for Mark Madsen, in what has been a hard-luck season in Berkeley. Late in the season, going up against a fired-up rival on its home floor, Cal might get a little overwhelmed here, as much as it wants to win against the team it dearly wants to beat. The lack of health is going to catch up with the Golden Bears here, and that’s why the spread — while perhaps a little high — is placed where it is. Cal is not going to be able to keep up, and it will lose by at least 10 points.
Final California-Stanford Prediction & Pick
Stanford probably wins, but the spread is not attractive for any potential Stanford backers. That’s too high. Maybe sit back and wait for a live bet.
Final California-Stanford Prediction & Pick: California +6.5
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