BYU vs Utah Prediction 1/18/25 College Basketball Picks

The BYU Cougars and the Utah Utes meet Saturday in college basketball action from the Jon M. Huntsman Center. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for this game. Here’s a BYU vs. Utah prediction.

BYU Recap

The BYU Cougars come into this game looking to build off of an 85-69 win over Oklahoma State last time out to improve to 11-5 on the year. After this game, BYU will head on the road for a game against Colorado.

Cougars Looking To Pick Up Momentum

Richie Saunders leads BYU in scoring with 13.7 PPG along with 3.8 RPG while Egor Demin has 11 PPG with 4.2 RPG and a team-high 6 APG to lead the Cougars in assists. Trevin Knell has added 10.1 PPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for BYU so far this season while Fousseyni Traore has 9.6 PPG with 6.6 RPG and 2.1 APG. Kanon Catching has 9.3 PPG with 3.1 RPG Dawson Baker has 8.3 PPG, while Dallin Hall has 7.5 PPG with 3.9 APG. Keba Keita has 6.8 PPG with a team-high 8.5 RPG to lead the Cougars on the glass up to this point in the year. As a team, BYU is averaging 80.8 PPG on 47.9% shooting from the field, 36% from three, and 69.2% from the foul line this season.

Why the BYU Cougars will win

• BYU has won seven of its last eight games when playing with a rest advantage.
• Utah has lost three of its last four night games against the Big 12 Conference.

Utah Recap

The Utah Utes come into this one looking to add on to a 73-65 win over TCU last time out to improve to 10-6 on the year. After this game, Utah will head on the road to take on Houston.

Utes Win Back-To-Back Games

Gabe Madsen leads the Utes in scoring with 16.2 PPG while Ezra Ausar has 10.2 PPG with 4.6 RPG and Mason Madsen has 10.2 PPG. Lawson Lovering has 10.4 PPG with 5.2 RPG in 11 games so far this season to round out the group of double-digit scorers for Utah up to this point in the season. Miro Little has 6.8 PPG with 4.5 RPG and a team-high 4.3 APG to lead the Utes in the assist department while Keanu Dawes has 8.4 PPG with a team-high 5.4 RPG to lead Utah on the glass and Mike Sharavjamts has 7.6 PPG, 3.6 RPG and 3.2 APG. As a team, Utah is averaging 80.6 PPG on 47% shooting from the field, 34.9% from three and 64% from the foul line this season.

Why the Utah Utes will win

• Utah has won each of its last 10 night games at Jon M. Huntsman Center.
• BYU has lost each of its last five road games against non-AP-ranked opponents.

BYU vs. Utah Prediction

I’m on the over here. These are two teams that love to bomb away from behind the arc but neither side plays a whole lot of defense and realistically, if you see either side hold a team below 70 points on the other side, it’s because their opponent had a bad shooting night. I could see this game easily hitting the 160s where both teams score into the low-80s if not higher as I’m expecting a ton of threes to be hit in this game. I’ll back the over here.

Chris Ruffolo's Pick: Over 151