Hawaii Warriors vs. California Golden Bears Betting Odds, March Madness Pick

The Big West champion Hawaii Warriors (27-5) will take on the Pac-12’s California Golden Bears (23-10) as consensus underdogs on the college basketball betting lines in their South Region first-round matchup Friday.

The 13th-seeded Warriors are playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002, while the Golden Bears last appeared in the Big Dance three years ago when they lost their second game.

Point spread: The Golden Bears opened as 6.5-point favorites; the total was 141.5, according to sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark. (Line updates and matchup report)

March Madness pick, via Odds Shark computer: 71.1-68.9 Warriors

Why pick Hawaii to cover the spread

Hawaii has won five of its last six games along with 11 of 12 but struggled against the spread prior to the Big West tournament, failing to cover four straight. The top-seeded Warriors beat the spread, though, in two of their three conference tournament games, falling just short of the number in a 64-60 win over the third-seeded Long Beach State 49ers as 4.5-point favorites in the championship game.

Hawaii has already been banned from the postseason next year due to infractions committed by former head coach Gib Arnold, so the players will try to make the most of their opportunity here.

Why pick California to cover the spread

Cal is coming off an 82-78 overtime loss to the second-seeded Utah Utes as the No. 3 seed in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament after finishing the regular season strong with eight wins in nine games. During that nine-game stretch before the conference tournament, the Golden Bears also went 8-1 against the spread, covering eight in a row prior to a 68-65 victory against the Arizona State Sun Devils as 5.5-point road favorites on March 5.

They opened the Pac-12 tournament with a 76-68 win over the sixth-seeded Oregon State Beavers as eight-point chalk and should be primed to rebound.

Smart betting pick

A key injury to Cal leading scorer Tyrone Wallace that happened Wednesday makes it tough to back this team versus the Warriors. Wallace will reportedly miss the game after suffering a fracture in his non-shooting hand during practice, according to CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein.

Golden Bears head coach Cuonzo Martin also recently fired assistant Yann Hufnagel following sexual harassment allegations, providing them with even more distractions. The Rainbow Warriors will take advantage and use their own motivation to cover the spread.

March Madness betting trends

California is 9-2 SU and 8-2-1 ATS in its last 11 games.

California is 5-0-1 ATS in its last six games as a favorite of 6.5 points or more.

California is 2-0 SU and ATS against Hawaii since 1995.

California has played four straight over results as a Madness favorite.

All point spread and lines data courtesy of Odds Shark, and all quotes gathered firsthand unless otherwise noted. Check out Twitter for injury and line movement updates and get the free odds tracker app for iOS or Android.