Johnny Juzang’s potential absence has affected UCLA-Arizona State line too much, plus other Monday best bets
Do we need a Presidents Day? Listen, I understand that in different parts of the country, it’s referred to as Washington’s Birthday, and it’s also a holiday to celebrate the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in other states, and if that’s what you’re celebrating at your core, fine. But, again, I have to ask, what’s the point of Presidents Day?
I’m not here to look a gift holiday in the mouth, and I’ll take the day off work (though I’m currently working), but do Presidents need a day honoring them? Was electing them to the office not enough of an honor? Shouldn’t the fact that they decided to run and the American population said “yeah, we’re good with you for the most part” be enough? Do they really need this additional ego boost every year?
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Instead of Presidents Day, today should be a holiday honoring John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur and Gerald Ford. They’re the only five Presidents who never won an election and instead took over for Presidents who died or resigned in disgrace. We can call it Unelected Presidents’ Day, and it’ll serve as our way of saying, “hey, thanks for stepping in for a minute there and helping out, and even though you didn’t do enough to warrant us letting you keep the gig, no hard feelings.”
None of the following picks were elected, either. The rest of this newsletter is a fascist state.
All times Eastern, and all odds via Caesars Sportsbook
🔥 The Hot Ticket
Arizona State at No. 12 UCLA, 9 p.m. | TV: FS1
Latest Odds:
Over 131.5
The Pick: Over 130.5 (-110): The most significant factors in this total are Arizona State’s putrid offense and the uncertainty surrounding UCLA’s leading scorer Johnny Juzang. Juzang missed UCLA’s 76-50 win over Washington with a hip injury, and he’s a game-time decision for tonight. As you can tell by that final, the Bruins didn’t miss their leading scorer much against a bad Washington team. Arizona State isn’t much better, though the Sun Devils have been better defensively than Washington. Anyway, the point is the absence of Juzang has affected this total a little too much in my estimation, and even if he misses tonight’s game, I think we’ll get past this total.
The first meeting between these two needed three overtimes before Arizona State pulled off the upset, and it was one of Arizona State’s most successful offensive performances of the season. I don’t expect a repeat performance, but the Sun Devils will be confident going into this matchup because they know they can beat the Bruins, having done it before.
We aren’t going to see a shootout, but I do think we finish closer to 140 than 130.
Key Trend: The over is 9-3 in UCLA’s last 12 as a home favorite.
Here’s what SportsLine is saying about the game: The SportsLine Projection Model is leaning toward the over just like I am, but if you prefer betting the spread, two of our experts are in agreement about which side you should be betting.
💰 The Picks
🏀 College Basketball
Indiana at No. 22 Ohio State, 7 p.m. | TV: FS1
Latest Odds:
Ohio State Buckeyes
-7
The Pick: Ohio State -6.5 (-110) — Ohio State losing to Iowa its last time out is probably bad news for Indiana. I had thought that with the Hoosiers sandwiched between big games against Iowa and Illinois, the Hoosiers might catch the Buckeyes sleeping. Instead, Indiana will get an Ohio State team looking to get back into the Big Ten race ahead of Thursday’s game against the Illini, and Ohio State cannot afford to lose any more games if it wants to win the conference.
There’s also the revenge factor, as Indiana won the first meeting 67-51 after outscoring the Buckeyes 21-6 over the final 10 minutes of action. The Buckeyes couldn’t make a shot to save their lives that day, and considering they’re one of the best shooting teams in the country, it’s difficult to see that happening again. Indiana has been outstanding defensively, which will keep this one close for a while, but the Buckeyes pull away late and cover when Indiana can’t make shots.
Key Trend: Ohio State is 5-2 ATS in its last seven home games while Indiana is 1-11 ATS in its last 12 as an underdog.
Georgia Tech at Syracuse, 7 p.m. | TV: ESPN+
Latest Odds:
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
+8.5
The Pick: Georgia Tech +8.5 (-110) — The ACC is so bad this season that I researched if we should adopt the same “Nobody is good enough to be favored over anybody” principle we had with the NFC East and ACC football. Sadly, it doesn’t exist. Nobody in the ACC can cover any spread with regularity, it seems. Instead, we’re buying low on Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets are a problematic matchup for Syracuse.
The key to Syracuse’s zone has always been its length and ability to defend the perimeter, but the Orange have struggled defensively this season. Still, they do a decent enough job defending the three, but Georgia Tech rarely shoots from three. Most of its scoring is done on the interior by Michael “Bell Biv” Devoe and Jordan “Usher” Usher. While both can hit threes, they shoot over 52% from inside the arc, and Syracuse is awful defending the interior, allowing opponents to shoot 51.3% from two. I don’t know that it’ll be enough to get the Yellow Jackets the win, but it should keep things close.
Key Trend: The underdog has covered seven of the last 10 meetings.
🔒 SportsLine Pick of the Day: The SportsLine Projection Model has a heavy lean toward one side of the spread between Ohio State and Indiana as well. Does it agree with me?
⚽ Champions League picks
The Champions League resumes Tuesday afternoon, and I’ve got picks for all four of this week’s matches (and all can be seen on CBS or Paramount+). If you’d like a longer explanation behind them, you can read all about it here. If you don’t, you probably didn’t read this part anyway, so here are the picks.
- Chelsea vs. Lille: Romelu Lukaku to score a goal (+105)
- Villarreal vs. Juventus: Both Teams to Score (-110)
- Atlético Madrid vs. Manchester United: Atlético Madrid (+145)
- Benfica vs. Ajax: Ajax (-127)
