The Utah Utes take on the California Golden Bears. Check out our college basketball odds series for our Utah California prediction and pick.

This game is an absolute must for Utah in terms of its NCAA Tournament chances. The Utes do have a big win over Arizona on their profile, but they missed on additional chances to snag important wins and add them to their portfolio of results. They lost to Mississippi State. They lost to TCU. They lost to BYU. They also lost at home to Sam Houston State, a result which could really hurt them down the line if they don't compensate for it in other ways. This game against Cal is not a big win to gain so much as a bad loss to avoid. California has only one win this season. Losing to the Golden Bears would be a true disaster for Utah. The Utes simply do not have any margin for error in this particular contest in Berkeley, as the heart of the Pac-12 basketball season arrives.

Here are the Utah-California NCAA Basketball Odds, courtesy of FanDuel. 

College Basketball Odds: Utah-California Odds

Utah Utes: -10.5 (-104)

California Golden Bears: +10.5 (-118)

Over: 128.5 (-110)

Under: 128.5 (-110)

Why Utah Could Cover the Spread

Cal is simply horrible. The Golden Bears have only one win this season, and that came against a Texas-Arlington team which is rated lower than No. 275 in the NET rankings and other metrics. Cal did not come particularly close to beating USC at home in Pac-12 play roughly four weeks ago. Many people would say that Utah and USC are relatively equal teams, so if USC could handle Cal in Berkeley — the final score was 66-51 — Utah should be able to achieve something similar. Cal struggles to score. The Golden Bears are not a good team in general, but they really struggle at the offensive end. They can be decent on defense, but there's no elite scorer who can take over a game and put this team on his back, delivering the goods in crunch-time situations.

It also has to be said that Utah did pound Arizona by 15 points in early December. Branden Carlson has a high ceiling as a player, and when he is on top of his game, Utah can be really special. Even though the Utes didn't beat TCU earlier this month, they fought the Horned Frogs — a ranked team — for 40 minutes. There is so much more upside on the Utes than on the Bears.

Why California Could Cover the Spread

This is a home conference game, and more precisely, a home conference game during the holiday season at the start of the 18-game normal conference schedule. “Normal” refers to the post-Christmas block of conference play. The two “abnormal” conference games are the two league games stuffed into the middle of the nonconference schedule at the start of December. We have already seen in multiple conferences that the shift from non-con play to conference action will create some strange results, a good example being San Jose State beating UNLV at home in the Mountain West Conference on Wednesday night. Conference road games are not easy, no matter the specific conference. Cal is getting more than 10 points and can easily keep this game close.

Final Utah-California Prediction & Pick

Don't overthink this. Cal is a bad team, and Utah is a decent team in need of a win. Utah by 15.

Final Utah-California Prediction & Pick: Utah -10.5