The Oakland Golden Grizzlies take on the Youngstown State Penguins. Check out our college basketball odds series for our Oakland Youngstown State prediction and pick. Find out how to watch Oakland Youngstown State.

The Horizon League has a fun conference race heading into the last weekend of January. The Northern Kentucky Norse lead the conference with a 9-2 record. The Milwaukee Panthers are currently in second place at 8-3. Oakland and Youngstown State are two of three teams next in line at 7-3, the other team being the Cleveland State Vikings. These five teams are all in the hunt for the Horizon League regular season championship and the No. 1 seed at the Horizon League Tournament in March. Any game pitting any of these teams head to head is an especially big Horizon League game and an obvious national point of interest for college basketball fans who follow the mid-major conferences.

Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Oakland-Youngstown State College Basketball odds.

College Basketball Odds: Oakland-Youngstown State Odds

Oakland Golden Grizzlies: +8.5 (-104)

Youngstown State Penguins: -8.5 (-118)

Over: 150.5 (-114)

Under: 150.5 (-106)

How To Watch Oakland vs. Youngstown State

TV: ESPN2

Stream: ESPN+

Time: 9:00 p.m. ET, 6:00 p.m. PT

*Watch Oakland-Youngstown State LIVE with fuboTV (Click for free trial)*

Why Oakland Could Cover the Spread

The Oakland Golden Grizzlies are a fascinating team. They are 9-12, whereas Youngstown State is 15-6. That might seem like an obvious reason to pick Youngstown State against the spread, but we often come across examples in college basketball of teams which get knocked around in nonconference play and then figure things out in conference play. That's Oakland. The Golden Grizzlies are riding the wave in the Horizon League and should be evaluated beyond the numbers. If you look solely at the raw numbers, Oakland has a negative point differential and Youngstown State has a positive point differential of over 11 points. Those numbers are skewed, though, by the extent to which Oakland struggled out of conference. The Grizzlies were 2-9 in non-con play. They have been a completely different team since they started playing Horizon League games. Aggregate statistics will never tell the story of how well Oakland is playing right now. The Grizzlies have won four of their last five and should be seen as the equal of Youngstown State. Yet, Oakland is getting 8.5 points on this spread. It seems like a much better situation than a lot of people currently appreciate.

Why Youngstown State Could Cover the Spread

This game might be a matchup of two teams with 7-3 conference records, but Youngstown State is the better team, and those cumulative statistics do matter. Youngstown State averages over 84 points scored per game, and it has scored 84 or more points in four of its last five games. Not coincidentally, YSU has won four of its last five. The point here is that the way this team is performing and the statistics this team is generating are matching. They go together. They are not diverging. There isn't a disconnect for YSU between the numbers and the actual results. Youngstown State is playing at home and is coming off a 13-point loss to second-place Milwaukee in the Horizon League. That loss might seem like a reason to pick against the Penguins here, but losing to a good team should sharpen up YSU and make this team more focused for this battle with Oakland.

Final Oakland-Youngstown State Prediction & Pick

You should stay away from this game. Oakland's numbers in the Horizon League are very different from its statistics outside the conference, and that makes this game hard to size up.

Final Oakland-Youngstown State Prediction & Pick: Oakland +8.5