I’m on Iowa here. I know the Hawkeyes haven’t necessarily been their best on the road, but UCLA hasn’t been good anywhere as of late, losing 4 in a row, and unlike last year when Mick Cronin called out his guys after a 90-44 loss to Utah and they responded by winning 8 of their next 9, this year’s UCLA team has seemed to have gotten worse. USC shot 65% in their win over Iowa at home last time out, but UCLA won’t do anything near that as they’re shooting below 29% from three over the course of this four-game losing streak and it’s at the point where stars are getting benched. The travel schedule’s been brutal for UCLA, which we’ve come to see in other conferences like the ACC that had the Pac-12 castoffs, and not just in basketball but in football as well. UCLA’s travel schedule as of late in the new year goes from West Coast against Gonzaga, to Nebraska, back home three days later against Michigan, in a game where they got run out of the gym 94-75, back cross country to face Maryland and Rutgers in back-to-back road games, now BACK home again against an Iowa team that’s going to run the same pace of offense as Michigan did and can shoot from behind the arc as well. Iowa got the benefit of staying on the West Coast after playing USC on Tuesday and I think all of that points to where I don’t see how UCLA should be favored by this many points. Iowa is a quad 2 game for UCLA, and Iowa has not won a quad 1 or 2 game by more than three points this season and are 3-6 SU (Granted, most of those were on the road but, the lone home game was the previously mentioned loss to Michigan). I’ll take Iowa and the points here with a sprinkle on Iowa ML.
Chris’s Pick Iowa: +7 -108
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo

Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg