Monday's best college basketball game is saved for last, as the Baylor Bears host the No. 13 Arizona Wildcats for a 10 p.m. ET tip-off.
The pregame narrative: Jaden Bradley showed up in a big way when the Wildcats last faced the Bears, and I'm riding with the guard to perform well again tonight. My +325 SGP also includes an alt spread and a prop bet on Baylor's V.J. Edgecombe.
Check out my Arizona vs. Baylor predictions for the men's college basketball matchup on Feb. 17.
Arizona vs. Baylor predictions
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Parlay: Arizona +5.5 | Bradley 4+ assists | Edgecombe 15+ points (+325)
Arizona +5.5 (-215): I don't mind taking a flier on the Wildcats to win straight up as underdogs, but for some added cushion, I'm rolling with this alt spread.
Dating back to Dec. 7, Arizona has covered a +5.5 spread in 17 of 18 games.
Of course, that includes the Wildcats' 81-70 win over the Bears in Arizona on Jan. 14. Arizona took the lead less than three minutes into that game and never relinquished it.
Baylor (16-9, 8-6 Big 12) is three games behind Arizona in the conference standings. The Bears have failed to cover this number in six of their past 10 games.
SGP legs
Bradley 4+ assists (-159): Bradley averages 3.8 assists, so this might seem like an undesirable price to back him at this milestone. But tonight's matchup is a good one for the junior guard.
Baylor allows an assist on 60.7% of opponent field goals. That's the 20th-highest rate in NCAA Division I, per KenPom.com.
When these teams matched up last month, Bradley had six assists in 38 minutes.
He's also cashed this bet in six of his past eight games, as well as 14 of 25 overall (56.0%).
Edgecombe 15+ points (-130): Edgecombe finished with 14 points when he last faced Arizona, but his overall body of work in recent games makes this point total perfectly attainable.
- In 11 games since Jan. 7, the freshman guard has averaged 17.8 points while shooting 44.2% from 3-point range.
- He has 15+ points in 7/11 games in that span while finishing with exactly 14 points three other times.
Edgecombe's 14-point effort vs. Arizona was only the third time this season (in 23 games) that he didn't attempt a free throw. That's an anomaly that will hopefully sort itself out on Monday.
Touted as the No. 5 recruit in the 2024 class, per 247 Sports, it shouldn't surprise anyone that Edgecombe is getting into a groove in the back end of his first collegiate season.
Picks made at 12:55 p.m. ET 02/16/2025
