Auburn vs Arizona Prediction, Picks & Odds for Tonight’s College Basketball Game

McKale Memorial Center will be the home of a late-night showdown, with the Auburn Tigers set to face the No. 2 Arizona Wildcats.

Auburn has played four neutral-site games, losing to Houston in nearby Birmingham and getting routed by Michigan by 30 points.

The Wildcats’ size will be a problem tonight, which is why my Auburn vs. Arizona predictions and college basketball picks expect the home favorite to cover on Saturday, February 6.

Auburn vs Arizona prediction

Auburn vs Arizona best bet: Arizona -8.5 (-115)

Advertisement

The Arizona Wildcats are the eighth-tallest team in college basketball. They rebound more than 40% of their own missed shots, the 11th-best rate in the country. On the other end, they only allow opponents to rebound 26% of the misses, also near the top of the rankings.

Arizona hits 57% of its two-point attempts and holds opponents below 25% (No. 21 in the country). Six rotation players are 6-foot-7 or taller, including 7-foot-2 center Motiejus Krivas, who hits 72% of his shots.

It also includes 6-foot-7 freshman Ivan Kharchenkov, who is expected back after suffering a sprained ankle. Coach Tommy Lloyd declared him “fine” and said Kharchenkov wouldn’t be limited in the game.

All of that is bad news for an Auburn Tigers team that was dominated inside by Michigan. The Wolverines hit 21 of 33 two-point attempts (.636) while Auburn was held to 12 of 38 (.316). Michigan rebounded 44.4% of its own misses, the second of three straight Auburn opponents to top 44%.

Auburn has also struggled with ball security in recent games after protecting the ball well earlier in the season. The Tigers turned it over at an 18% clip against St. John’s and 28.4% against NC State, their two worst games of the year, the last two times out.

Making matters worse, Auburn’s tallest starter, 6-foot-10 KeShawn Murphy, has missed “significant” practice time due to an illness that limited him to 15 minutes in the last game.

The Tigers need to be running on all cylinders against Arizona, and heading…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/auburn-vs-arizona-prediction-picks-160100257.html

Author :

Publish date : 2025-12-06 17:17:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.