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

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-UCLA College Basketball odds.

College Basketball Odds: California-UCLA Odds

California Golden Bears: +24.5 (-102)

UCLA Bruins: -24.5 (-120)

Over: 125.5 (-110)

Under: 125.5 (-110)

How To Watch California vs. UCLA

TV: Pac-12 Network

Stream: Pac-12 Now

Time: 10:30 p.m. ET, 7:30 p.m. PT

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

Why California Could Cover the Spread

The spread is huge. Start there. UCLA was not very consistent or convincing on Thursday night in an ugly win over Stanford. It's true that Stanford has been playing better of late, but UCLA really did allow Stanford to hang around in that game far longer than it should have. UCLA knows that a big road trip to Utah and Colorado is coming up next week. Human nature being what it is, UCLA could easily get bored with this game and jog through it at half-speed or three-quarter speed. If Cal plays just 10 minutes of really focused and solid basketball, that alone could be enough to cover the spread. Cal can lose by 24 and still cover, so if this game is tied after the first 10 to 12 minutes, UCLA could dominate the second half and still fail to cover.

Why UCLA Could Cover the Spread

The California Golden Bears are as bad as it gets among Power Five conference teams. They are indeed worse than Louisville right now. They are probably worse than Minnesota. They lost by 37 points to USC on Thursday night. They trailed by 27 at halftime. Cal was a 15.5-point underdog to USC and had nearly zero chance of covering the spread halfway through the game. The question at halftime was if Cal could avoid losing by 30 points or more, and of course, the Golden Bears failed.

UCLA did not play its best against Stanford on Thursday, so one would expect the Bruins to come out strong in this one and put the boot to the throat. Assuming UCLA does play well in the first 10 minutes, the Bruins should be up by 15 points after those first 10 minutes. They can build a 25-point lead by halftime and grow their lead in the second half. If USC could crush Cal, UCLA certainly can, too.

Final California-UCLA Prediction & Pick

Cal is awful. UCLA is really good and likely to play a solid first half. The Bruins should be able to win by 30 or more.

Final California-UCLA Prediction & Pick: UCLA -24.5