{"id":172970,"date":"2026-01-16T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=172970"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:31:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:31:32","slug":"bold-predictions-college-basketball-weekend-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/01\/16\/bold-predictions-college-basketball-weekend-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Bold Predictions in College Basketball for this Weekend\u2019s Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

I should have been bolder. Last week, one of my bold predictions was that Wisconsin would take Michigan to the wire<\/a> and have a chance to hand them their first loss. Well, the Badgers didn\u2019t just keep it close; they won the game outright! That\u2019s what makes bold predictions so difficult \u2013 my analytical, math-based brain just saw a 19-point underdog taking on the buzzsaw that was Michigan. My gut said that the Badgers were the exact type of team that could give them trouble. Should have trusted my gut. Let\u2019s see how we can do this week!<\/p>\n

College Basketball Bold Predictions<\/h2>\n

Florida goes into Memorial Gymnasium and upsets Vanderbilt<\/h3>\n
\"\"
Photo Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Vanderbilt Commodores just suffered their first loss of the season to Texas on Wednesday night. And I think that Florida is a nightmare matchup for them that could start a two-game slide. I love Vandy\u2019s guard play with Tanner and Miles, but their frontcourt is undersized, and a little suspect defensively, and Florida\u2019s triple-big lineup of Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, and Rueben Chinyelu should be able to dominate the glass and control the game.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Northwestern gives Nebraska its first loss in over 9 months<\/h3>\n
\"\"
Photo Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I tried to pick on Nebraska last week, and I\u2019m doing it again this week. As a team that takes 3-pointers at a high rate (15th in the nation), Nebraska games are going to have a lot of variance, especially when they are on the road. And Northwestern has one of the Big Ten\u2019s best scorers in Nick Martinelli, who should be able to score enough to make the Cornhuskers pay if they have an off shooting night.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A full-strength Washington upsets Michigan State behind a big game from Jacob Ognacevic<\/h3>\n
\"\"
Photo Credit: Chris Jones-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Washington has dealt with a ton of injuries this season. But they\u2019re starting to get the band back together, with Wesley Yates returning and Jacob Ognacevic making his season debut on Wednesday night. Ognacevic is a former ASUN player of the year, and his size should match up well with Michigan State, who will be making a cross-country road trip to travel to Washington.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

BYU beats Texas Tech behind a 30-point performance from AJ Dybantsa<\/h3>\n
\"AJ
Photo Credit: Aaron Baker-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this upcoming elite-level NBA draft class, AJ Dybantsa just might be the most elite. BYU will need him to be at his best as they travel to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech. I just don\u2019t see anyone at Texas Tech who can match Dybantsa\u2019s combination of size, speed, and strength, and I think he has a breakout moment in this game.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Braden Smith records a triple-double in Purdue\u2019s victory over USC<\/h3>\n
\"Braden
Photo Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Purdue\u2019s Braden Smith is the resident triple-double king of college basketball, but he hasn\u2019t had one this season. USC is a team that plays with a lot of pace and has not been great on either side of the ball at the guard spots this season. This increased number of possessions against a weak-ish opponent should give Smith the opportunity to notch his first triple-double of the season.<\/p>\n

For more great college basketball analysis, check out DrRoto.com<\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I should have been bolder. Last week, one of my bold predictions was that Wisconsin would take Michigan to the wire and have a chance to hand them their first loss. Well, the Badgers didn\u2019t just keep it close; they won the game outright! That\u2019s what makes bold predictions so difficult \u2013 my analytical, math-based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5637,"featured_media":172977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,50437,50440],"tags":[2792,777,4052,858,877,1441],"class_list":["post-172970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-nba-predictions","category-ncaa-predictions","tag-byu-cougars","tag-florida-gators","tag-nba-predictions","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-purdue-boilermakers","tag-washington-huskies"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172970"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172979,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172970\/revisions\/172979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}