Baylor vs Iowa State Prediction College Basketball Picks 1/4/25

The Baylor Bears and the Iowa State Cyclones meet Saturday in college basketball action from Hilton Coliseum. Here’s a Baylor vs Iowa State prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Baylor vs Iowa State pick. We will examine:

The Baylor Bears’ recent form and player performance

The Iowa State Cyclones’ recent form and player performance

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Baylor Bears

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Iowa State Cyclones

Recent betting trends in games played between Baylor and Iowa State

A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the Baylor vs Iowa State game

Baylor Bears Betting Preview

The Bears’ season kicked off with a loss to Gonzaga in blowout fashion, but they’d win the next four games. Those victories came versus Arkansas, Sam Houston, Tarleton State, and St. John’s in succession. Baylor would go 1-2 over the next trio, with a win over New Orleans in between losses to Tennessee and UConn. Since then it’s been a string of four victories, as Baylor has dispatched Abilene Christian, Norfolk State, Arlington Baptist, and Utah in succession for a pretty solid 9-3 start to the 2024-25 season overall.

Back on New Year’s Eve versus Utah in their most recent outing, the Bears came out of halftime looking good on a 37-17 edge. The Bears finished strong in the second half, riding a 44-39 wave on the way to an 81-56 blowout victory. Baylor’s leading scorer was VJ Edgecombe with 19 points, five rebounds, one assist, and two steals. Norchad Omier doubled up on 15 points and 14 rebounds, while Jeremy Roach added 15 points with three boards and two steals. Robert Wright led the bench scorers—by quite a margin—adding 15 points with four rebounds, two assists, and two steals in 27 minutes of work.

Iowa State Cyclones Betting Preview

Over on the Iowa State side, they were able to get off to a nice start through their first three games, taking wins over Mississippi Valley State, Kansas City, and IUPUI in that trio. The Cyclones suffered their lone blemish of the season on November 25, taking a tough loss 83-81 to a very good Auburn team. Since then it’s been all victories, though. Iowa State has run the table in their last eight games, taking out Dayton, Colorado, Marquette, Jackson State, Iowa, Omaha, Morgan State, and Colorado in succession for an 11-1 start through 12 games.

Matched up against Colorado on December 30, the Cyclones came out of the locker room facing a 37-31 advantage on the scoreboard. Iowa State finished strong on a 42-38 run and took the eventual victory 79-69. Curtis Jones came off the bench to lead the team, providing 20 points with three rebounds and one steal. Keshon Gilbert led the starters with his 14 points and three assists, while Joshua Jefferson added 13 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and a whopping eight steals. Tamin Lipsey came in with 10 points and two steals as well.

Why the Iowa State Cyclones will win

• Iowa State has won each of its last 15 games at James H. Hilton Coliseum when playing with a rest advantage.
• Baylor has lost five of its last six day games against Top 5 AP-ranked opponents.
• Baylor has lost the first half in four of its last five games against Conference opponents.

Why the Baylor Bears will win

• Baylor has won each of its last four day games.

Baylor vs Iowa State Prediction

I’ll stay with Iowa State. The Cyclones are rolling right now and coming off an impressive road win over a pretty darn good Colorado team. Iowa State finished with a tepid 42.6 percent shooting from the field and just 22.2 percent (4-of-18) from 3-point range, though. The keys to the victory were the 40-33 rebounding advantage and the 24 points off 19 Colorado turnovers, however. That makes 79 or more points in every game this year for Iowa State.

As for Baylor, they held the Utes to just 31.8 percent shooting and collected 22 points off 17 turnovers in the blowout win. The Bears have 81 or more points in four straight games (all wins) so we should have a pretty big total here. I still like Iowa State to walk away with the cover, though. It’ll be a fun one to watch at least.