It’s time to continue our College Basketball odds series with a Rutgers-Washington prediction and pick. Find out how to watch Rutgers-Washington.
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights have a lot of questions they have to ask themselves in the coming college basketball offseason. The Scarlet Knights and coach Steve Pikiell have two very probable NBA lottery picks on the 2025 roster, Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. Injuries have been a problem, and that should not be ignored in this discussion, but injuries to a team which still has two lottery picks playing the vast majority of games should not lead to this much failure.
Harper and Bailey have missed games, but not many. Neither player has missed more than three total games this season. They have both played in at least 23 games for Rutgers this season. Rutgers has played 26 total games.
With two lottery picks playing almost every game, Rutgers simply should not be 12-14 through 26 games. That’s a dramatic — not slight — failure for this team, and it’s an indictment of the supporting cast surrounding these two top players who are likely to have productive and lucrative NBA careers. The story of Rutgers is a story of how basketball, though usually requiring one or two luminous stars to lift a team to the next level, is still a five-man game which depends on five guys, not just one or two, working together and all helping each other out. The absence of a productive supporting cast has crushed Rutgers this season. This is why Rutgers is desperately battling just to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament. That’s right: Rutgers is 5-10 and Washington is 4-10. Rutgers needs to win to stay ahead of Washington in the Big Ten standings and not fall into the bottom three of the 18-team league. The bottom three will not qualify for the Big Ten Tournament. The 15th-place team is the last qualifier. RU and UW are both near that cut line.
Here are the Rutgers-Washington College Basketball Odds, courtesy of FanDuel
College Basketball Odds: Rutgers-Washington Odds
Rutgers: +1.5 (-104)
Moneyline: +108
Washington: -1.5 (-118)
Moneyline: -130
Over: 148.5 (-110)
Under: 148.5 (-110)
How to Watch Rutgers vs Washington
Time: 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT
TV: Big Ten Network
*Watch college basketball LIVE with fuboTV (Get Access | Save $30)*
Why Rutgers Will Cover The Spread/Win
If Rutgers is a disappointment — and it certainly is — Washington is also a disappointment. The Huskies have stumbled through this first season under new coach Danny Sprinkle, who came from Utah State with a glowing reputation and was expected to revive a program which had tumbled into mediocrity under previous coach Mike Hopkins. To be fair to Sprinkle, the first season at a struggling program can be a bumpy ride, and of course, Sprinkle does deserve time and space to put his own imprint on the Washington program. Nevertheless, the Huskies were surely expecting more than being in 16th place in the Big Ten in late February, scrambling to try to get that 15th and final spot in the Big Ten Tournament. Washington was probably expecting a mid-level finish in the Big Ten, maybe 12th place at worst. Being 16th is below what the Huskies were angling for. Rutgers, for all its flaws, can beat UW in a game which is pretty close to a toss-up as far as the markets are concerned.
Why Washington Will Cover The Spread/Win
The Huskies are going up against a Rutgers team which lost to Iowa last week at home, then flew across the country to Oregon on Sunday and got clocked by 18 points, 75-57. It’s late in the season. Rutgers is stuck in the Pacific Northwest, far away from its New Jersey home base. This looks and feels like a situation in which an underachieving team mentally checks out and just doesn’t put in the effort.
Final Rutgers-Washington Prediction & Pick
We always say it because it’s true: You will not enjoy betting on one bad team to win you money against another bad team. Pass. Stay away from this game.
Final Rutgers-Washington Prediction & Pick: Washington -1.5
The post Rutgers vs Washington prediction, pick, college basketball odds appeared first on ClutchPoints.
