The red hot Washington State Cougars host the #17 UCLA Bruins on Friel Court at noon tomorrow. For Washington State, they are trying to get revenge for the 78-52 beat down and continue their four game winning streak. As for the Bruins, they are looking to win their sixth straight and complete a home and road sweep of the Washington schools.

Tomorrow's game looks to be a high scoring affair as both squads are in the top five in conference in scoring; the Cougs are averaging 63 points per game, and the Bruins are averaging 68.9 points per game. Both squads also struggle to prevent their opponents from scoring as the Bruins are giving up 60 points per game, and the Cougs actually aren't that much worse than the Bruins, giving up 64 points per game.

One of the things the Cougs have struggled greatly with this season is rebounding. The Cougs are eighth in the conference in rebounding margin, with -1.2; the Bruins are second with a rebounding margin of +6.9. When the Cougs have had Sage Romberg and Shalie Dheenshaw on the floor the rebounding situation has been much better.

Last night the Trojans built their early first half lead off of some stellar three-point shooting (4-6), and a stone cold three-point effort from the Cougs (1-11). If the Cougs are going to pull off the upset, they can not afford to get buried under a barrage of threes from the Bruins. Unfortunately for the Cougs the Bruins are hitting 33.9% of their three pointers (2nd), and the Cougs are one of the worst in the conference (8th) at stopping the three pointer.

It's probably going to be a high scoring affair that sees the Bruins pull it out late. There is just too much talent and experience on their roster for me to think that the Cougs can pull off the upset at home. That being said, the Cougs are playing some excellent basketball right now and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they pulled it out late.

Prediction:

WSU 67-UCLA 64