Gonzaga vs. Baylor Prediction and Odds for Friday, December 2 (Just Take the Over in the Peacock Classic)

It’s the Peacock Classic and you won’t be able to find a more prestigious college basketball event than that. I hope you send NBC some money every month because this is a seriously exciting game. No. 14 Gonzaga and No. 6 Baylor both have question marks early in the season, so that will make for an exciting matchup of two of the best programs in the sport. 

The Zags are 6-2 and coming off a close call with Xavier, 88-84, Mark Few’s team has not been their typical dominant selves this year, but they’ve still got Drew Timme and I’d bank on them figuring things out. Their two losses have come to No. 2 Texas, who look like one of the absolute best teams in the sport and No. 5 Purdue. 

No. 6 Baylor has the worst loss of the four between these two, losing to Marquette earlier this week, but the Bears were almost certainly looking ahead to this matchup, so let’s get right to it. 

Gonzaga vs. Baylor Odds, Spread and Total

Gonzaga vs. Baylor Prediction and Pick

Both of these teams have problems, but they haven’t really come up on offense. The Bears are averaging 88.1 points a game and Gonzaga is averaging 83.7. It does seem like they need another offensive initiator, but the defense is of much greater concern. 

For Baylor, all of its creation comes out of the backcourt. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it needs somebody to take the scoring load off of Adam Flager, LJ Cryer, and Keyontae George. Flo Thamba will never be that type of player, so it’ll have to be Jalen Bridges who only had eight points and no assists in the Bears' 96-70 loss to Marquette. Baylor hasn’t been able to defend well enough, especially with its three-guard lineups. The Bears are giving up 71.7 points a game which is the worst of any Big 12 team. 

I like Baylor’s issues more than Gonzaga’s. The Zags have the front court, but they don’t have the guards and in college basketball that makes a team very unreliable. Drew Timme is the center of everything and he is a good scorer, and playmaker out of the post, but Julian Strawther is a score-first guard and they’re lacking a player like Andrew Nembhard from last year’s team that could bring the ball up the floor and run the offense. 

Kenpom has these as the best two offenses in the country and when you’ve got a total this insanely high you have to take it. It’s like a personal challenge. I also think that Baylor wins this game because in college hoops, I ride with good guards over anything else. 

Pick: Over 160.5 (-115) and Baylor ML +125

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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change