Wildcats Slight Road Dogs, Try To End Recent Struggles vs Oregon

The Oregon Ducks face their toughest conference opponent yet, hosting the nationally ranked Arizona Wildcats. Oregon has covered the spread in seven of its last eight matchups, but when two potent offenses meet, bettors may want to look at the OVER on Thursday.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

The Ducks have won 13 straight home games and three straight games against Arizona. They also enter the game as the ninth-ranked team in the nation, yet curiously opened as only 3-point favorites over the 24th-ranked Wildcats, who have lost three of their last five games.

With both teams boasting lethal offenses — and a recent history of combining to go OVER the total a lot — the Sportsbook total in Thursday’s game was 143.5 points.

Arizona News & Notes

The Wildcats are coming off a big win, toppling rival Arizona State 75-47, but overall Arizona has struggled of late, losing three of its last five games SU and ATS.

While two of those losses came against teams currently ranked in the top five of the AP Coaches Poll, Arizona has not played very well recently, covering the spread in just two of its last eight games. The Wildcats need to start logging some quality wins, which a road victory against the ninth-ranked Ducks would be, but it will be difficult as the Wildcats are 1-5 ATS in their last six games at Oregon.

Expect Arizona, currently ninth in the nation in scoring 83.1 points per game, to lean heavily on super freshman Zeke Nnaji, who leads the team with 16.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.

Oregon News & Notes

Oregon prepared for its conference season by scheduling a number of difficult early-season games — including five against ranked schools — and started the Pac-12 portion of its schedule with consecutive road games against Colorado and Utah.

The Ducks split those two road games, winning the more recent contest 69-64 over the Utes, and have now won six of their last seven games SU, and have gone 16-4 ATS in their last 20 games.

Thursday marks their biggest test within the conference to date, against another nationally ranked program in Arizona, but they come into the game with confidence: they’re 7-1 ATS in their last eight games against the Wildcats and 9-1 ATS in their last 10 games against Pac-12 opponents.

Betting Pick: OVER 143.5

The total has gone OVER in six of the last eight meetings between these teams, and with both schools possessing high-octane offenses, I’d expect another high-scoring game Thursday.