The Southern Utah Thunderbirds will take on the Portland Pilots at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday at America First Event Center. It's the quarterfinals of The Basketball Classic 2022, and the winner will face Fresno State in the semifinals on Monday. The Thunderbirds are 22-11 overall, while Portland has a 19-14 mark on the season.
Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. ET and it will be played in Cedar City, the home of Southern Utah. The Thunderbirds are favored by 3.5 points in the latest Southern Utah vs. Portland odds from Caesars Sportsbook, and the over-under is set at 155. Before entering any Portland vs. Southern Utah picks, you'll want to see the college basketball predictions from the model at SportsLine.
The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every Division I college basketball game 10,000 times. Over the past five-plus years, the proprietary computer model has generated an impressive profit of over $1,300 for $100 players on its top-rated college basketball picks against the spread. Anyone who has followed it has seen huge returns.
Now, the model has set its sights on Southern Utah vs. Portland. You can head to SportsLine to see its picks. Here are several college basketball odds for Portland vs. Southern Utah:
- Southern Utah vs. Portland spread: Southern Utah -3.5
- Southern Utah vs. Portland over-under: 155 points
What you need to know about Portland
Portland finished sixth in the West Coast Conference this season with a 7-7 mark in conference play. The Pilots had a signature win against San Francisco on Feb. 8, and they've gone 7-2 since that point. They beat the New Orleans Privateers 94-73 in their first game in this tournament to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Guard Tyler Robertson leads the team in most key statistical categories -- points (14.9), rebounds (6.3), assists (4.5) and steals (1.3), so he's the clear focal point. Portland has a top-100 offense nationally, and three other players -- Moses Wood (14.5 ppg), Chris Austin (14.2 ppg) and Mike Meadows (10.2 ppg) averaged double-digit scoring this season.
What you need to know about Southern Utah
The Thunderbirds have knocked off a pair of quality mid-majors in The Basketball Classic, beating Kent State 83-79 in the first round and then defeating UTEP 82-69 in the second round. They finished second in the Big Sky with a 14-6 conference mark this season, trailing only conference champion Montana State. They are 6-2 in their last eight, and perhaps their best win of the year came over Ivy League champion Yale in the Fort Myers Tip-Off back in November.
Leading scorer Tevian Jones (14.6 ppg) is out for the season with a wrist injury. John Knight III (14.4 ppg) and Dre Marin (11.1 ppg) will both need to handle more of the load, and Marin is a great 3-point shooter at 40.3 percent. Losing Jones certainly takes away some of their scoring punch, but for the season, the Thunderbirds ranked 24th nationally in scoring offense at 78.6 points per game.
How to make Portland vs. Southern Utah picks
The model is leaning under on the total, and it's also generated a point-spread pick that is hitting in almost 80 percent of simulations. You can only see the pick at SportsLine.
So who wins Southern Utah vs. Portland? And which side of the spread hits almost 80 percent of the time? Visit SportsLine now to find out, all from the model that has crushed its college basketball picks.
