The Pepperdine Waves take on the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. Check out our college basketball odds series for our Pepperdine Hawaii prediction and pick.
Pepperdine has a tough life in the West Coast Conference. Gonzaga, Saint Mary's, San Francisco, BYU, and Santa Clara are all factors. Portland is improving. That's a lot of good teams the Waves need to fight through in order to make themselves better and more relevant in their conference. Of course, WCC play hasn't started yet this season, but the Waves are measuring themselves against nonconference opponents, and they can see that it will be tough sledding in the West Coast Conference based on what has transpired thus far.
Pepperdine is 6-5 through 11 games, and while a loss to UCLA is perfectly fine, the Waves have dropped four other games to very beatable opponents: Cal State Fullerton, Cal Santa Barbara, Nevada, and Grand Canyon. The one team of the four which is clearly a good team is Cal Santa Barbara. Fullerton is 6-6. Nevada has a very ordinary resume despite a 10-3 record; the Wolf Pack have not beaten any particularly strong teams so far this season. Grand Canyon has lost four times and also lacks any notable wins. Pepperdine probably hoped it would be at least 7-4 if not 8-3 through 11 games, so the road ahead for this team does not figure to be very easy.
Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Pepperdine-Hawaii College Basketball odds.
College Basketball Odds: Pepperdine-Hawaii Odds
Pepperdine Waves: +4.5 (-110)
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors: -4.5 (-110)
Over: 140.5 (-115)
Under: 140.5 (-105)
Why Pepperdine Could Cover the Spread
The point spread is noticeably in favor of Hawaii. You can have your doubts about Pepperdine as a team, but why is Hawaii favored by four and a half points? The Rainbow Warriors might be a good team, but we really don't know how good they are. They have played only nine games this season, whereas a lot of other teams across the country have played 12 or 13 games. Hawaii has played only two games since November 30 and only one game since December 7. This team will be physically fresh, but it might be very rusty. Going a long time without playing basketball games doesn't seem like a recipe for success. Hawaii's losses aren't terrible as a group. Yale and UNLV are good teams. However, a loss to Texas A&M Commerce is bad. If Hawaii can lose to Commerce, that seems like a team Pepperdine can defeat.
Pepperdine's wins aren't amazingly great, but one of the Waves' wins this season came over UC Irvine, a team good enough to beat Oregon by 13 points on the road in Eugene. Hawaii giving 4.5 points to Pepperdine seems like an invitation to pick Pepperdine.
Why Hawaii Could Cover the Spread
This is a home game for Hawaii in Honolulu, and as noted above, Hawaii will be very physically fresh for this game since it hasn't played a whole lot this season. You're going to see a lot of energy from the Rainbow Warriors in front of a home crowd. Pepperdine is a noticeably inconsistent team which probably should have a better record than it does, but which plays to the level of its competition and doesn't regularly display good habits on the court.
The fact that Hawaii has absorbed only one bad loss this season — Yale and UNLV are not bad losses at all — suggests that Hawaii generally takes care of business against beatable opponents. One can make a very simple case that Pepperdine has not been similarly businesslike and therefore does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Final Pepperdine-Hawaii Prediction & Pick
We don't know much about Hawaii and we don't know how Pepperdine will react here. You should frankly stay away from this game, but if you absolutely insist on a pick, lean Pepperdine.
Final Pepperdine-Hawaii Prediction & Pick: Pepperdine +4.5
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