Pac-12 Tournament: USC Trojans vs Utah Utes prediction and college basketball game preview.
USC vs Utah Broadcast
Date: Thursday, March 11
Game Time: 8:30 ET
Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
Network: Pac-12 Network
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USC (21-6) vs Utah (12-12) Game Preview
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Why Utah Will Win
Utah seemed to be cruising right along for a while in the Pac-12 Tournament first round against Washington, but it turned into a wild firefight in a 98-95 Ute win.
Utah’s defense might have struggle, but the offense was devastating from the outside, hitting 14-of-26 from three and now it has to bomb away and push a USC team that can play D, but isn’t always a rock at stopping the three.
The Utes have won three of their last four games and one was against the Trojans, hitting everything from the outside and stuffing the USC three point shooting in the 71-61 win.
The ability is there to pull this off if the threes are dropping, but …
Why USC Will Win
Utah can’t rebound. It’s one of the worst teams in the country at hitting the boards, and it showed in the first meeting with the Trojans – a 64-46 USC win – going -11 in rebounding margin.
USC might be struggling a wee bit lately offensively, but the defense has been enough of a wall to step up and make up for the loss a few weeks ago. It starts by owning the boards, and continues with the defense cranking up the intensity now that the lights are on.
What’s Going To Happen
USC has had a big, big problem stopping the three.
Three of the last four teams hit 55% or better from the outside, and that includes Utah. The Utes will connect on their shots from three to stay in the game, but they’re not going to hit enough of the other shots to pull this off.
It’ll be ragged, but USC will survive late as the Utah O goes cold in the final few minutes.
USC vs Utah Prediction, Line
USC 73, Utah 65
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Line: USC -6.5, o/u: 141.5
ATS Confidence out of 5: 2.5
Must See Rating: 3
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