UCLA Bruins at USC Trojans

Sometimes a team tells you exactly who they are, and right now, the USC Trojans are waving the white flag. They enter this regular-season finale on a six-game skid, but the real story is what's happening off the floor. They just dismissed their leading scorer, Chad Baker-Mazara (18.5 PPG), which leaves a massive offensive void for a team already missing Rodney Rice for the season. Head coach Eric Musselman is openly questioning his team's effort at home, where they've lost their last three by an average of 17.3 points.

On the other side, you have a 20-10 UCLA squad that is peaking at the perfect time. Mick Cronin has the Bruins playing suffocating defense—they just held a top-10 Nebraska team to 52 points and 5-of-24 shooting from deep. Offensively, they are fully healthy with Skyy Clark back in the mix alongside Donovan Dent, who dropped a season-high 30 points on this exact USC defense just two weeks ago.

Speaking of that matchup, UCLA blew out the Trojans 81-62 on February 24th, winning by 19 points when USC still had their best scorer on the floor. Now, USC is forced to rely on freshman Alijah Arenas to carry the offensive load against one of the most disciplined defensive units in the Big Ten. UCLA doesn't beat themselves; they boast an elite 11.9% turnover rate, dictate a slow, grinding tempo, and have massive motivation to secure a better seed for the conference tournament. Laying under two possessions against an in-state rival in complete turmoil is the play. I'm backing the Bruins to comfortably cover the number.