The Gonzaga Bulldogs will head to Austin, TX, to take on the Texas Longhorns for a Wednesday night game between two national championship hopefuls. The Longhorns enter the game as a (-1) home favorite, with the total currently set at 144 points.
Both teams are coming off of victories, but it is Gonzaga that has endured and passed an early season test. The Bulldogs almost took an early season loss at the hands of Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln last Friday but were able to escape.
The Zags trailed by double digits before eventually taking the lead on a Drew Timme free throw that proved to be the game-winner with 1:51 remaining.
Texas has not really played anyone of note early in the season but has looked good doing it. The Longhorns took down UTEP in their season opener by 15 points before destroying Houston Christian by 51 points last Thursday.
Gonzaga Looking to Pad Their Resume
Despite what basement-dwelling Twitter experts might suggest, Gonzaga is once again playing an incredibly difficult out-of-conference schedule. The Zags will play five teams currently ranked inside the Pomeroy top 30 before the start of conference play.
A byproduct of their massive amount of success under Mark Few, Gonzaga has been fantastic straight up on the road since 2015, with a 91% winning percentage and losing just six true road games over that span.
It is a bit of a different story when you look at the Zags’ performance against the number, however. Gonzaga is just 34-30-2 ATS in true road games but is boasting a margin of victory of +17.3 points per game. Blame the massive spreads due to Gonzaga’s blue blood-esque type performance over the last decade.
Superstar Drew TImme returns for his fourth season in a Gonzaga uniform and hopes to show NBA scouts that he is a viable NBA prospect. The Fred Astaire of college basketball, Timme will look to pirouette his way through the undersized Longhorn front court and lead Gonzaga to the best resume of the early college basketball season.
Longhorns Looking for Revenge
Texas comes into this game boasting a talented roster full of returning talent, experienced scoring transfers, and freshmen with tremendous upside. The Longhorns should also be playing with a bit of a chip on their shoulder after Gonzaga took them down a notch in last season’s meeting.
Texas had national championship aspirations heading into last season after a tremendous haul in free agency, only to get pasted by the Bulldogs almost exactly a year ago. Gonzaga jumped out to a 12-point lead before leading by 20 at the half.
The Longhorns seemed to suffer a blow to their confidence and/or chemistry the rest of the season as they were one of the more unpredictable teams in the power six conferences.
This season’s roster appears to be more stable, and if talented freshmen Dillon Mitchell can play to his potential while Dylan Disu can regain his Vanderbilt form, Texas should be good to go and show more consistency.
Gonzaga vs. Texas Betting Prediction
The frontcourt matchup sticks out like a neon sign on a desolate highway here. The combination of Timme, Anton Watson, and Efton Reid present a real issue for the Texas bigs.
Timmy Allen and Christian Bishop are both undersized for their position and will likely struggle on the glass against the Bulldogs.
Look for Gonzaga to punish Texas in the paint en route to a straight-up road victory.
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