3:00 pm
December 22

UCLA v. #15 Ohio State

Who will WIN this matchup?

UCLA Bruins (7-4)

#15 Ohio State Buckeyes (10-1)

 

Current odds:

UCLA Bruins: (+210)

Ohio State Buckeyes: (-260)

 

• The line for the game is Ohio State by 6 points.

• Leading scorer and rebounder Kaleb Wesson briefly left Tuesday night’s 75-56 victory over Youngstown State after he took an elbow to the mouth. Trainers took him to the locker room, put a stitch in the lip and the sophomore returned to lead the Buckeyes with a game- and career-high 31 points. Ohio State is somewhat undersized this season other than the 6-foot-9, 270-pound Wesson and 6-8 Kyle Young, and UCLA’s height advantage concerns Holtmann, whose team has a plus-5.6 rebounding margin but likely will need help from its perimeter players on the glass and defensively.

• The Bruins appear to be in disarray after their blowout loss at unranked Cincinnati, with junior forward Kris Wilkes saying afterward, “I don’t think we all came to play and it showed.” UCLA allowed Cincinnati to shoot 52.4 percent from the field and 57.1 percent on 3-pointers and received a meager contribution from its bench, with Wilkes raising questions about the effort level with “I’m not saying the bench came in lackadaisical, but a lot of them haven’t played a road game and just coming in, they’ve got to bring the same energy that everybody else is bringing.” Wilkes, the Bruins’ top player, finished with 21 points against the Bearcats to boost his season average to 17.7 points, nearly six more points per game than 7-footer Moses Brown, who’s far and away the team’s leading rebounder with 9.4 per game.

• Ohio State junior Andre Wesson, who had two teeth knocked out and one cracked in last Saturday’s win over Bucknell, is set to play against UCLA after having more dental work done Wednesday.

6/10
Confidence
StreakSmarter Pick
#15 Ohio State Buckeyes
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