NCAA Basketball Betting: No. 13 Gonzaga at Memphis

Gonzaga's Matt Bouldin is one of the nation's top players. (AP Images)

It’s rare you will find a quality non-conference matchup this late in college basketball’s regular season, but Gonzaga at Memphis is certainly a potential NCAA Tournament matchup – the host Tigers opened as 4.5-point favorites on Bodog’s college basketball odds.

Actually, Memphis (16-6, 4-5 ATS at home) has a bit of work to do left to assure an NCAA at-large bid. The Tigers dominated Conference USA under John Calipari -- not losing a C-USA game the past three seasons -- but enter play Saturday tied for third under first-year coach Josh Pastner. Memphis could use a win like this to boost its NCAA Tournament resume as it is 0-3 (1-2 ATS) against ranked teams so far and doesn’t play a team that’s currently in the Top 25 the rest of the regular season. It’s possible that Memphis gets a major boost Saturday with the debut of Angel Garcia. The 6-foot-11 sophomore from Puerto Rico is a former top 50 national recruit who missed last season due to academic issues and all of this season so far after tearing an ACL in the fall. He has been practicing and was on the bench for Wednesday’s win over UAB. The Tigers are led by Duke transfer Elliot Williams (20.0 ppg) but have very little depth.

Gonzaga (18-4, 4-2 ATS on road) is no longer a lock in the West Coast Conference, either. The Zags lost to San Francisco last week for their first WCC loss in 28 games and just their sixth in six years. But Gonzaga bounced back Thursday night with a blowout of a solid Portland team. The Bulldogs are led by senior Matt Bouldin, who is averaging 21.0 ppg in the past five and shooting 53.8 percent from the field. Gonzaga has played several high-profile non-conference teams this year, having beaten Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Illinois, Cincinnati and Washington State while barely losing to Michigan State and Wake Forest -- but getting crushed by Duke.

When making your college basketball bet on this one, know that Memphis won in Gonzaga last year and is 4-1 all-time against the Zags. And with Gonzaga having played at 11 p.m. ET time on Thursday and then having to fly cross country for a Saturday afternoon start (4 p.m. ET) in Memphis, that quick turnaround could very much benefit the Tigers, who are 0-5 ATS in their past five non-conference games.

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