UCF vs. Houston NCAA Basketball Odds, Preview and Prediction (Archive)
Suddenly mired in a two-game losing skid, the Houston Cougars look to right the ship on Thursday’s sports betting calendar when the UCF Knights come to town for an AAC clash.
UCF Knights vs. Houston Cougars
Thursday, February 17, 2022 – 9:00 PM EST at Fertitta Center
Houston and UCF are meeting for the second time in a little under three weeks, and the two American Athletic Conference rivals tip things off with opposing streaks. The Cougars had won 12 in a row before dropping a pair of league contests a week ago, while the Knights bring a modest two-game win streak to Bayou City.
Unbeaten in AAC play prior to last week, Houston still holds a slim half-game lead over SMU despite the two losses. Central Florida was picked fourth in the conference on the NCAA basketball futures and the Knights are sitting sixth, three games behind the Cougars.
UH Seeking Fifth-Straight Win in Series
In one of the late games on the evening schedule, ESPN2 has the broadcast, and Bovada (visit our Bovada Review)has the Cougars lined as 14-point favorites while charging bettors taking the Knights and the points a little extra juice. The same shop is listing 136½ for the total.
Fortunes have reversed for Houston and UCF since the schools met on January 29. The Cougars were living it up with a 9-game win streak when they traveled to Orlando for that matchup, the streak growing to an even dozen eventually. The Knights, meanwhile, were struggling at the time with the loss to Houston part of a 1-3 stretch on their schedule.
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Houston enjoyed a 63-49 victory at Addition Financial Arena, with a 15-4 run to close the first half playing large in the final result. The Cougars closed the second half on an 11-3 run to ensure the 6-point cover, Josh Carlton’s double-double (13 pts, 15 reb) grabbing the spotlight.
Though the final stopped well short of a 136½-point total, the ‘over’ has prevailed in seven of the last 10 meetings. With the victory, Houston pushed its all-time mark in the series out to 19-11, all 30 matchups coming since 2006 when the schools called Conference-USA home. It was the Cougars’ fourth consecutive win, and they have covered eight of the last nine matchups.
Knights Failed to Cover the Last Three as Underdogs
Central Florida reaches H-Town off a 76-67 win over Tulsa on Monday. Johnny Dawkins’ crew led by 19 with a little more than four minutes remaining before the Golden Hurricane came alive, but that big cushion stood up to cover the 7½ points on the college basketball odds board. Brandon Mahan led four Knights in double figures with 17 points.
The victory was the second in a row, and third in the last four games with UCF covering each of the dubyas as the favorite. Pulling off upsets and covering as the underdog has been a problem for the Knights who are 0-3 SU and ATS their last three games in that role.
Jamille Reynolds missed Monday’s win over Tulsa and is questionable to face Houston with an undisclosed injury or illness. The 6-10 sophomore primarily comes off the bench to spell Cheikh Mbacke Diong, and is averaging 8.3 minutes and 3.0 points per game.
Are the Cougs Starting to Miss Sasser, Mark?
Despite being favored by 7 at online betting sites, there was no shame in Houston’s 85-83 loss at SMU last week. Granted, the Cougars blew a 15-point lead and the usual defense was a bit lax for Kelvin Sampson’s crew, especially on the perimeter, but beating the Mustangs on their home floor at Moody Coliseum is always tough.
And maybe it was just a letdown from that loss that led to the 69-59 loss to Memphis on Saturday. The Cougars were favored by 10 against the Tigers, and Houston got off to a slow start before shooting itself in the foot with a 4-minute scoring drought late in the second half. The Cougars also got a bit sloppy with 19 turnovers, well above their 11.3 per game average.
Still, one has to wonder if the loss of a couple of key contributors is finally catching up to the Cougars. They lost Tramon Mark early in December to a shoulder injury that required season-ending surgery and then saw leading scorer Marcus Sasser go down just before Christmas with a broken bone in his left foot that ended his campaign.
There isn’t a lot of danger in Houston’s losing streak continuing on Thursday, but I’m also not sure about an easy victory for Sampson and his squad. Even with their recent struggles as the underdogs, I’ll take the Knights plus the points for my college basketball pick.
NCAAB Pick: UCF +14 (-108) with Heritage Sports (visit our Heritage Sports Review)
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