Baylor vs Arizona Prediction 1/14/25 College Basketball Picks

The Baylor Bears and the Arizona Wildcats meet Tuesday in college basketball action from McKale Center. Here’s a Baylor vs Arizona prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Baylor vs Arizona pick. We will examine:

The Baylor Bears’ recent form and player performance

The Arizona Wildcats’ recent form and player performance

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Baylor Bears

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Arizona Wildcats

Recent betting trends in games played between Baylor and Arizona

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

Baylor Bears Betting Preview

Baylor kicked off the 2024-25 season on a fairly shaky run, but they’ve looked substantially better since early December. The Bears hit a 5-3 stretch in their first eight games, taking losses to Gonzaga, Tennessee, and UConn. The wins otherwise were over Arkansas, Sam Houston, Tarleton State, St. John’s, and New Orleans. Since then it’s been a much better 6-1 stretch for Baylor. The lone loss in that time came versus Iowa State. Otherwise, it was wins over Abilene Christian, Norfolk State, Arlington Baptist, Utah, Cincinnati, and Arizona State during that time for an 11-4 overall run over 15 games for the Bears.

Matched up against the Sun Devils on Saturday, the Bears were looking good by halftime on a 32-20 advantage. Baylor fell behind 41-29 in the second half however, and needed overtime to power out a 72-66 victory. Leading the charge was Norchad Omier with 19 points and eight boards. VJ Edgecombe added 15 points with four rebounds, three assists, and two steals, while Josh Ojianwuna doubled up on 12 points, 17 rebounds, one steal, and one block. Robert Wright came off the bench to chip in nine points, two boards and two assists in 31 minutes.

Arizona Wildcats Betting Preview

Over on the Arizona side, they had a shaky run out of the gate this year themselves, but since mid-December, the Wildcats have been rolling. Arizona went just 4-5 over their first nine games, beating Canisius, Old Dominion, Davidson, and Southern Utah with losses otherwise versus Wisconsin, Duke, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. Since then it’s been a six-game winning streak over Samford, Central Michigan, TCU, Cincinnati, West Virginia, and UCF. The result has been a 10-5 record through 15 games for the Wildcats so far.

In the UCF game over the weekend, the Wildcats held a 45-42 edge at the break. Arizona hit a 43-38 run the rest of the way to finish off an 88-80 victory. Tops in scoring for the Wildcats was Caleb Love with his 16 points, eight boards, and six assists. Anthony Dell’Orso added 15 points with three boards and three assists, while Henri Veesaar came off the bench for 14 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes of work. Tobe Awaka chipped in 11 points and five boards as well.

Why the Arizona Wildcats will win

• Arizona has won 17 of its last 18 night games at McKale Memorial Center following a home win.

Why the Baylor Bears will win

• Baylor has won each of its last six night games against non-AP-ranked opponents.

Baylor vs Arizona Prediction

I’m going to stay with Arizona. The Wildcats are cooking right now, and they’re coming off a nice win over UCF this past weekend. In that one, Arizona managed to hit 46.7 percent from the field with 41 rebounds and 16 team assists. The 14 turnovers (for 18 UCF points) were just about the only ugly spot. During this current six-game winning streak, the Wildcats have notched 72 or more points in every game, with 88 or more in four of the six.

As for Baylor, they were a little shaky against a pretty good Arizona State team in their last game, but to their credit, the Bears pulled off a nice win in overtime. Baylor shot 43.1 percent from the field with a 43-35 rebounding edge in that one but also had 16 turnovers for 19 Sun Devils points along the way. That makes 68 or more points in eight of the last nine games for the Bears—the lone outlier was 55 versus a great Iowa State team. Baylor should match up well here and I like them to give Arizona a game, but in the end, I think the Wildcats pull it off.

Andrew Jett's Pick: Arizona Wildcats -5.5