Georgia Tech vs. Utah Prediction and Odds for Monday, November 21 (Grab Under While You Still Can)
By Ben Heisler
The Rocket Mortgage Fort Meyers Tip-Off semifinals begin this afternoon in the "Beach Division" as the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets face the Utah Utes in the early game at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Marquette Eagles at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Both teams enter with three wins on the year. Tech comes in undefeated on the young year to this point, but no real challenges to this point in Clayton State, Georgia State (on the road) and Northern Illinois. Meanwhile, the Utes began the season 3-0, but come off a surprising home loss vs. Sam Houston State at the Huntsman Center, scoring just 23 points in the first half en route to a 6y5-55 loss.
The Utes are slight favorites in tonight's semifinal, but should bettors be concerned about their offense going ice cold again?
Let's dive into the latest odds for the early game from Florida:
Georgia Tech vs. Utah Odds, Spread and Total
Georgia Tech vs. Utah Prediction and Pick
My initial instinct was to take the over on a pretty low total on the board, given both teams' prepensity to push the pace. Georgia Tech and Utah both rank in the top 60 in average possession length, averaging 15.55 seconds per possession. That's about 1.6 seconds longer than the D1 average of 17.1, which adds up over the course of a game.
The issue, however, is even with a faster pace, these two teams are elite defensively at limiting quality shots. Utah ranks eighth in the country in opponent effective field goal percentage, while Georgia Tech ranks third! The Utes also rank in the top six in all of college hoops in both opponent 2-point and 3-point percentage.
With that in mind, I'm not quite sure how Georgia Tech puts up points today. The Yellow Jackets rank 324th in the country in effective FG %, while also shooting just 41.8% from inside the line. They're also not a good three-point shooting team as well; hitting 30.8% of their attempts so far this season.
Neutral site games have trended under around 53-54% of the time since 2005. I get the number is low, but shop around and see if you can find that 136 still hanging around. If not, I'd bet it down by a few points.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.