The weather is the headline across the country, but there’s a bigger storm in college basketball with a barrage of upsets this week. We have a loaded Saturday College Basketball slate! Let’s check out the college basketball slate for Saturday. Here are the College Basketball Picks for January 13th.
College Basketball Picks January 13th
Cincinnati at Baylor (-6.5) (O/U 150)
The Bearcats are coming off a disappointing loss to Texas. They allowed Dylan Disu to go for 33 points, and Max Abmas hit the go-ahead three for the Longhorns. Texas was able to hit nearly 60% of their three-pointers against the Bearcats in that game.
That has to be of notable concern as they do not travel on the road against the most efficient three-point shooting team in the entire country. Baylor’s defense can use work and is trending up, but it certainly doesn’t meet their standards yet.
Chalk that up to the nature of freshmen and transfers, but they’ve very clearly made a conscious decision to trade that out for an offense this season.
Baylor went through a bit of a lull, dropping games to Duke and Michigan State. I’m just not convinced they don’t belong in the conversation for national title contenders.
Laying the points with the Baylor Bears as the Bearcats get a harsh welcome to the true Big 12 road atmosphere. We’re not counting that BYU game as true Big 12 just yet.
The Pick: Baylor -6.5
USC at Colorado (-10) (O/U 151.5)
USC can already be considered one of the more underachieving teams in basketball, but now the Collier injury comes up. Isaiah Collier will be missing the next 4-6 weeks.
Some are speculating if he will play for the Trojans again this season, and that’s a fair question to ask given how he is viewed as an NBA prospect and the trajectory of USC’s season.
Colorado has had to battle some injuries of their own during the season and come into the game off of a second-half collapse to Cal. That collapse puts the Buffaloes on a three-game skid coming home to face these Trojans.
The hype train has worn off for this basketball team just as quickly as it did for their football program. Colorado has a single job today, and that is to shut down Boogie Ellis.
The Trojans don’t inspire much confidence on either side of the floor in this matchup.
The Pick: Under 151.5