Utah vs. TCU College Basketball Predictions, Picks, Odds

Utah and TCU meet in a Big 12 matchup, with both programs looking for a way to climb the standings. Utah’s struggles in the conference make sense, as this is their first season after reorganizing this past offseason. The Utahns are just 1-3, which puts them in 11th place in the standings, while TCU has an additional win at 2-2, which puts them just above Utah in ninth place. It may be Utah’s first season in the conference, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have some recent matchups between the programs to examine. TCU won both games in 2021 and 2022 by a margin of 14 as 2.5-point favorites and four as under-one-point favorites. It’s time to continue our college basketball odds series with Utah-TCU prediction and pick.

Utah heads into conference play at 8-3 after dropping its last non-conference game to Iowa. The Iowa loss wasn’t cause for panic, but there was concern when they dropped their first three conference games by scoring fewer than 65 points in each. After three games against Baylor, Texas Tech and Iowa State, Utah had a combined point differential of -76. They saved some doubts by beating Oklahoma State by 21 in the next game, but it’s hard to forget their performance in the first three games.

TCU is also 5-5 in their last ten games, but that doesn’t look too bad considering both of their conference losses came as double-digit underdogs. It wasn’t an easy draw for TCU in their conference schedule as they had to start with Houston and Arizona, but they have some big wins over Kansas State and BIU. The win over BIU was impressive considering they were underdogs at home.

Here’s Utah-TCU College basketball oddscourtesy of FanDuel

College Basketball Odds: Utah-TCU odds

Utah: +4.5 (-110)

Moneilines: +160

TCU: -4.5 (-110)

Money line: -190

Over: 143 (-110)

Under: 143 (-110)

How to watch Utah vs. TCU

Time: 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

TV: ESPN+

*Watch college basketball LIVE with fuboTV (Get Access | Save $30)*

Why Utah will cover the spread/win

TCU may have an identical 9-6 record to Utah, but that doesn’t mean much to the bettors who have been backing them every game. The Horned Frogs haven’t been the most profitable program to bet on this season, going just 5-10 against the spread. Utah hasn’t been the most profitable team, but they are better than TCU at 7-8.

Utah hasn’t had a great start to their time in the Big 12, but overall, they’re not looking bad this season. They are 61st in the nation in scoring at 81.1 points per game, and their offense is better than TCU’s defense in most metrics. They also have the upper hand on defense, allowing 70.2 points per game, while TCU ranks 283rd in the nation at 70.5 points per game.

Why TCU will cover the spread/win

In the Utah section, we looked at the big picture, but in this section, we’ll examine the teams’ records against growth over the last ten games. TCU still hasn’t been good, going 4-6, but Utah has been abysmal, going 2-8. The question you have to ask yourself when betting on this game is whether you believe Utah can regress to the mean and cover this range, or whether the last ten games are a better predictor of these teams’ futures.

The final Utah-TCU prediction and pick

Utah’s first three games in the Big 12 have been a wake-up call, and they showed it with their 83-point performance against Oklahoma State. Even though their records over the last ten games don’t look good, we could see them pulling out an upset win in this matchup, as they are the better program on paper.

Utah-TCU Final Prediction and Pick: Utah +4.5 (-110)