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Money Line: Spreads and predictions for Stanford and Arizona State, plus others

By Blake DuDonis

TUCSON, AZ - DECEMBER 30: Arizona State Sun Devils forward Kianna Ibis (42) dribbles the ball during a college women's basketball game between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Arizona Wildcats on December 30, 2018, at McKale Center in Tucson, AZ. (Photo by Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
TUCSON, AZ - DECEMBER 30: Arizona State Sun Devils forward Kianna Ibis (42) dribbles the ball during a college women's basketball game between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Arizona Wildcats on December 30, 2018, at McKale Center in Tucson, AZ. (Photo by Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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TUCSON, AZ – DECEMBER 30: Arizona State Sun Devils forward Kianna Ibis (42) dribbles the ball during a college women’s basketball game between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Arizona Wildcats on December 30, 2018, at McKale Center in Tucson, AZ. (Photo by Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
TUCSON, AZ – DECEMBER 30: Arizona State Sun Devils forward Kianna Ibis (42) dribbles the ball during a college women’s basketball game between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Arizona Wildcats on December 30, 2018, at McKale Center in Tucson, AZ. (Photo by Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

#7 Stanford -10.5 v. #17 Arizona State
Over/under: 124.5

Having seen Arizona State play multiple times this season, I knew they were a solid squad but they always left me thinking they were missing something. After a nice five-game conference win streak, albeit it not against the top tier of the league, they started to convince me a bit. Then Cal beat them by nine and I’m back to not being sure.

While I’m slightly exaggerating my thoughts on the Sun Devils, a look at the numbers show that while good in a lot of areas, they aren’t superior in enough ways to be a top team. Their effective field goal percentage of 47.4% is steady, their defensive rebounding rate of 74.1% is excellent, and their 12.1 turnovers per game is the 12th fewest in the country.

That said, they average just 65.2 possessions per game, ranking them 336th in the country. While fewer possessions does make it very difficult to pull too far away from Arizona State, it also puts them in a bind when trailing in games, as they don’t appear to have the pace to catch up if they need to. On that same note, their offensive rebounding rate of 30.2% is one of the worst in the country, making it vital that they hit their first shot.

Against a Stanford team that excels in taking care of the ball themselves (just 13.3 TPG) and is the superior offensive team, I just don’t know if the Sun Devils can keep up. -9.5 is a lot of points though and the pace might, as I mentioned before, make it hard to blow them out. I think Stanford wins but I’ll take Arizona State with the points and the over.

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