The California Golden Bears take on the Oregon Ducks. Check out our college basketball odds series for our California Oregon prediction and pick. Find out how to watch California Oregon.

The college basketball season has been highly unpredictable in a lot of ways, but California being a bad team is not one of them. The Golden Bears are 3-23 through 26 games. Other notably awful Power Five conference teams in major college basketball, such as the Louisville Cardinals and Minnesota Golden Gophers, are probably better than Cal right now. Louisville played competitive games against Miami and Virginia — two teams likely to get top-five seeds in the NCAA Tournament — over the past week and a half. Minnesota won on the road at Ohio State earlier this season. The Golden Gophers gave Wisconsin a battle on the road in Madison. Cal really doesn't have comparable results, having beaten Stanford and Colorado at home plus UT-Arlington, and no one else. Coach Mark Fox has been utterly unable to recruit or develop players, and there seems to be no end in sight, no light at the end of the tunnel, for the Golden Bears.

Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the California-Oregon College Basketball odds.

College Basketball Odds: California-Oregon Odds

California Golden Bears: +19.5 (-102)

Oregon Ducks: -19.5 (-120)

Over: 129.5 (-115)

Under: 129.5 (-105)

How To Watch California vs. Oregon

TV: Fox Sports 1

Stream: Fox Sports app

Time: 11:00 p.m. ET, 8:00 p.m. PT

*Watch California-Oregon LIVE with fuboTV (Click for free trial)*

Why California Could Cover the Spread

The spread is massive. Oregon is not a team which has usually justified a large home spread. The Ducks have been double-digit favorites at home a few different times this season, and they have lost outright to UC Irvine and Utah Valley. Those are the kinds of results which should give bettors plenty of reasons to reconsider their against-the-spread choice in this game. It doesn't have a whole lot to do with Cal, which is undeniably a bad team. It has everything to do with a very underperforming Oregon team which will not make the NCAA Tournament unless it wins the Pac-12 Tournament. Oregon is also coming off a game in which it barely beat a bad Oregon State team. It's true that in rivalry games anything can happen, but Oregon has no business getting taken down to the wire by the very bad Beavers, who are 215 in the NCAA NET rankings entering play on Thursday night (March 2). Cal can lose by 19 and still cover, so if this game is close late in the first half, Cal will be well on its way to covering the spread. It is very hard to trust Oregon here, much as it has been hard to trust Oregon all season long.

Why Oregon Could Cover the Spread

The California Golden Bears are atrocious. They really and truly are the worst Power Five conference team in America. They are worse than Louisville. The Cardinals recently beat Clemson. They are worse than LSU. The Tigers beat Vanderbilt and very nearly beat Missouri the other night. Cal is likely worse than Minnesota. The Golden Gophers haven't been good, but they have been moderately competitive in a number of their Big Ten games. Cal lost to both USC and UCLA by more than 30 points over a week ago. Cal then got swept at home by Washington and Washington State. The Golden Bears have just three total wins all season long. Even though Oregon is inconsistent and underachieving, the Ducks should not have a problem winning this game by 25.

Final California-Oregon Prediction & Pick

Cal is awful. Oregon is maddeningly inconsistent. Save yourself the agony and pass on this game.

Final California-Oregon Prediction & Pick: Oregon -19.5