T.M. Selection: UCLA.

I like UCLA to cover the spread against Long Beach State in this game on Thursday. UCLA was having a great 8-1 start to their year before it was derailed by a bunch of covid issues running through their team and then some of the teams they were scheduled to play. They are still 8-1 but the last game that they played was on December 11th and they are almost going on a full month without playing a real game. I think that the players are going to be really rested from their long break and I expect them to be eager to get back out on the court and play well in their 1st game back. They should have a lot of energy after not playing for so long and I think they are going to come out and get a big win to get right back into things like they never left. UCLA has been good on their home court this year winning all of their games there by 10+ points except for 1 game against Villanova but they still won that game by 9 points. Long Beach State has 2 wins in their previous 3 games but both of those wins were against teams not from Division I basketball and the 3 teams that they lost to were all Division I teams. Not only did they lose those 3 games but they lost the 2 road games by 10+ points each. I think Long Beach State is going to struggle on the road here in UCLA and I think UCLA will come out strong in this game since they have been waiting to play a game but they keep getting scheduled games postponed so once they finally get to play a game here, I'm expecting a great performance from them. I think they will come out with a lot of energy and pull away in this game making it out of reach for Long Beach State early in the game. I like UCLA to cover the spread here.

T.M. Prediction: 96-56 UCLA