Day 1 of the 2025 Big Ten Tournament concludes with the Trojans of USC (15-16, 7-13) taking the court against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (15-16, 8- 12).
Rutgers' season began with headlines and potential as they welcomed two of the top five freshmen in the nation to campus. Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, however, could not lead this roster consistently to victory this season.
Their last six games are a perfect example of Rutgers inability to defeat the top teams in the conference. They went 3-3 in those six games but the losses were to Michigan, Oregon, and Purdue while the wins came against the likes of Minnesota, USC, and Washington.
USC has lost their last six of their last seven games including that aforementioned loss at Rutgers on February 23. The Trojans gave up 95 points to Rutgers that night. Dylan Harper led the Knights with 25 that evening.
Lets dive into the matchup and offer some information and possibly a sweat or two.
We've got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch the opening tip, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.
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Vaughn Dalzell (@VmoneySports) expects these teams to struggle for stretches on offense tonight: Game Total Under 154.5 down to 151.5
"The total was 151.5 in the first and only meeting this season and they flew over with a 95-85 win by Rutgers. The two best players on the court will be on the Knights side in Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, so I expect a majority of the money will come in on Rutgers, but if we're being honest, I would not be shocked if USC wins this game and rolls. I like the Under because Big Ten Unders have been profitable in the first round of the conference tournament and at 154.5 to 152.5 is a large number. USC is playing in another time zone, and the Rutgers duo has the NBA calling, so I'll go with the Under and fade the public."
Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the NCAA calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, injuries, and the schedule.
Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.
Here are the best bets our model is projecting for today's Trojans & Scarlet Knights game:
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