College Basketball Odds: No. 20 Pittsburgh at No. 15 Connecticut

UConn and Pittsburgh have become the league’s two winningest programs over the past 10 years. (AP Images)

After losing four starters off last season’s Elite Eight team Pittsburgh wasn’t supposed to contend in the Big East this year, yet the Panthers are just one of two teams remaining without a conference loss. But arguably their toughest test of the season so far comes tonight at Connecticut, which is a 6.5-point favorite on Bodog’s college basketball odds.

Pitt (13-2, 6-5-2 ATS) has only played two true road games this season, but they were both wins (and covers) at Syracuse and Cincinnati. The Panthers lead the Big East in scoring defense (58 ppg) but don’t have much of a frontcourt – that could be exposed big time tonight by the big Huskies. Pittsburgh’s four leading scorers, led by Ashton Gibbs’ 17.5 ppg, are guards or guard types. And don’t foul Gibbs, as he has made 46 consecutive free throws.

UConn (11-4, 6-7 ATS) enters off an improbable loss, blowing a 19-point lead at Georgetown to fall to 0-3 this season against ranked teams. But the Huskies are 10-0 at home this season (3-5 ATS). They will try and get out and run, as their half-court offense has been very inconsistent. The Huskies are led by Jerome Dyson, who is averaging a team-best 19.3 points per game. He has missed the past three games against Pittsburgh. UConn also needs better decision-making from point guard Kemba Walker, who is averaging 4.3 turnovers in the past seven games.

When making your college basketball bet at Bodog on this one, the Panthers might be rusty as they haven’t played since beating Cincinnati on Jan. 4. And they have never played three Big East games in a row and won all three. They did beat UConn twice last season, and the Huskies were ranked No. 1 both times. But since 2002, no team has won three in a row in this series. The teams have split the past 10 meetings overall, with each game decided by 10 points or less.

Get all your college basketball odds at Bodog Sportsbook!