NCAA Basketball Sports Betting - Mississippi State vs UCLA

Saturday, December 12 - 4:30 PM ET

Since Mississippi State is going to the west coast to play, it may be in order to update you on the status of Renardo Sidney, the standout from California who was supposed to be MSU's prize recruit. Well, the update is that there is no update. Officials from the NCAA are still investigating how Sidney's family was living in a million-dollar home, and how his father wound up with hundreds of thousands in sponsorship dollars. Well, you know the drill. It's college basketball. The word is that Sidney should not be expecting to play too soon.

That's a shame, as the Bulldogs were certainly hoping when they recruited Sidney that he could be front and center when the team visited southern California for this game, which is part of the Wooden Classic that is being held in Orange County (the other game is Georgetown against Washington). Sidney was expected to be part of a front wall that included Jarvis Varnado, the national leader in blocked shots last season. That isn’t happening just yet, but Varnado is doing just fine, thank you. He is averaging 14.1 points and 10.3 rebounds, as well as 4.9 blocks, and all of those figures are career highs.

Here are some of the NCAA basketball sports betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

• MSU has won six of its last seven games SU
• MSU has coverded seven of its last ten games
• MSU has won five of its last six road games SU
• UCLA has lost its last four games SU
• UCLA has covered three of its last nine games
• UCLA has won 18 of its last 25 home games SU
• UCLA has lost four of its last six home games SU

Mississippi State got double figures from five different players on Thursday night as the Bulldgs routed DePaul in impressive fashion, 76-45. The Blue Demons shot 28% from the field, and nothing in the way of size to compete. Varnado gets help from Cody Augustus (11.5 ppg, 5.7 rpg) and Dee Bost (50% from three-point range), as well as Ravern Johnson (46% threes, 12.6 ppg). This is a balanced team. Think of how good they could have been with Sidney on hand.

This is kind of a quick turnaround for Mississippi State, with just about 48 hours or so between games, as they travel from the Tampa Bay area to the west coast. UCLA has faltered thus far, losing four straight games, and they are very young, with plenty of freshmen and sophomores playing key roles. No double digit scorers returned from a year ago, there has been a lot of attrition on the roster in the last couple of seasons, and three-point marksmen are not in abundance.

However, this is a team that is rested (five days off), has competed hard with #1 Kansas and Butler., can go at least nine deep and will benefit from the defensive game plan laid out by Ben Howland, which will force the Bulldog shooters to make it happen from the outside with tired legs after that cross-country trip. Guards Michael Roll and Malcolm Lee both have pretty good assist-turnover ratios. The conditions could be right for an upset.

We'll go with UCLA, which is likely a quasi-home underdog in the BetUS NCAA basketball betting odds.