Can No. 1 Baylor’s Defense Produce Another Low-Scoring Game At Florida?

No. 1 Baylor has won 15 straight games, covered the spread in five of their last six road games — and five of their last six overall. With a dominant defense and a tendency for totals going UNDER, don’t expect a ton of points when they visit Florida on Saturday.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

Baylor, the current No.1 team in the nation, opened at two-point underdogs despite a 15-game winning streak, a perfect 3-0 SU and ATS record on the road and Florida winning just six of their last 10 games. The total opened at 131.5 points, which is total Baylor has seen go OVER in just one of their last six games, while Florida has surpassed that in five of their previous seven contests.

Baylor News & Notes

Baylor overcame a rough night from their star player and a furious rally from a game Oklahoma team to come away with a 61-57 home win on Monday. Even though Jared Butler, who averages 16.1 points per game, finished with just four on the night, Butler notched their 15th win in a row, but they did snap a five-game ATS win streak.

The No.1-ranked team is country did, however, stick to their identity — defense. They held Oklahoma to just 35 percent shooting from the floor, which is typical of a program which allows the 17th-lowest opponent shooting percentage in the country, allows the sixth-fewest points per game… and has seen the total go UNDER in five of their last six contests.

The Bears have struggled against the SEC lately, going 1-8 ATS in their last nine games against teams from that conference, but with their reliability dominant defense and a likely bounce-back game from Butler, Baylor should be just fine.

Florida News & Notes

The Gators are sitting at 12-6 overall and 4-2 within the SEC, but can’t seem to string together a big winning streak. After a big 18-point win over No. 4 Auburn, the Gators followed that up with an 84-82 loss to LSU on Tuesday. They nearly overcame an 11-point deficit in the last 1:11 of the game, but ultimately fell short and are now just 6-4 SU in their last 10 games.

Florida has done well ATS lately, winning three straight and four of their last five, but considering they sit outside the top 100 in offense, defense, assists and rebounds, all signs point to the Gators truly just being a good-but-not-great team.

They are 7-1 SU at home this season and carry a six-game home winning streak into Saturday’s tilt against the country’s top program, but they are just 3-5 ATS at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center — and Saturday will be their toughest test yet.

Betting Pick: UNDER 131

It’s going to be a low scoring game against Baylor, because you simply don’t score on them. I don’t see Florida cracking their defense on Saturday, so I again expect the UNDER to play.