#4 Houston vs. #21 BYU Odds: NCAAB Pick Prediction

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The Big 12 is clearly the best college basketball conference by depth this season and that’s on display Tuesday night when No. 4 Houston visits No. 21 BYU in the first matchup as Big 12 foes for two of the four new additions this season. UH is favored on the NCAAB odds. 2024 NCAA Basketball Betting & Expert Analysis #4 Houston vs #21 BYU | MyBookie Sportsbook Week 12 NCAAB

How to Bet Houston at BYU NCAA Basketball Odds & TV Info

When: Tuesday, 9 PM ET
Where: Marriot Center, Provo
TV: None nationally
Stream: Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Radio: Tunein.com
Opening NCAAB Lines: Houston -2.5 (total 136.5)

Last Meeting

The teams played last on Nov. 15, 2019, with BYU prevailing 72-71 on the road. BYU’s TJ Haws received an inbounds pass in the back court with 5.1 seconds left and as he neared the top of the key angled right and then shot a contested, fadeaway jumper over Quentin Grimes. The ball hit the front of the rim and time expired before the ball dropped through the basket.

Why Bet on Houston Cougars?

Houston (16-2, 3-2 Big 12) comes off a 57-42 home win over a good UCF team on Saturday. It was destined to be a low-scoring one from the start, as both teams boasted Top-40 scoring defenses entering the game. That came into play from the jump, as neither team scored for the first three minutes of action.

Houston Last 5

vs UCF – W57-42

vs Texas Tech – W77-54

@ TCU – L68-67

@ Iowa State – L57-53

vs West Virginia – W89-55

When the final buzzer sounded, UCF had held Houston to its second lowest point total of the season, no easy feat against a top-five nationally ranked team. The only lower scoring game for the Cougars was the 53 they scored in a four-point loss at Iowa State. The Knights also held Houston to its second lowest field-goal percentage of the season at 34.5%, just 0.1% from tying the Cougars lowest of 34.4% at Xavier.

Meanwhile, the Knights made seven field goals in the game, the lowest by any Houston opponent this season. UCF experienced its lowest first and second half point totals, as well as first and second half field goal percentages, finishing the night shooting 15.9%. It was the worst shooting percentage allowed by Houston since East Carolina shot 16% (8 of 50) on Jan. 22, 2022.

“They’re phenomenal defensively,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “I’ve played against them a number of years, and I’ve seen some terrific defensive teams by Houston, but I don’t think I’ve seen one defend as well as I’ve seen this team defend for 40 minutes. They did a terrific job of taking us out of the things we wanted to do.”

Senior guard L.J. Cryer scored 16 points, senior point guard Jamal Shead added 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and junior forward Ja’Vier Francis had 10 points and six rebounds for Houston, which has won 16 straight home games. The Cougars forced 15 turnovers, which they converted into 15 points, and owned a 24-6 advantage in points in the paint.

“The process is far more important than the result,” Coach Kelvin Sampson said. “I talk about our discipline, our communication, our help and recovery, being able to finish the possession off with a defensive rebound, winning the loose rebound battle, all those things. Our defense keeps getting better because we keep working on it.”

Houston owns the nation’s longest active streak with 76 consecutive weeks in the Associated Press Top 25. The Cougars are tied for fourth in the nation with four Quad 1 victories in the NCAA NET rankings. Only Purdue (6), UConn (5) and Arizona (5) have more Quad 1 wins in 2023-24. Shead is one of only four players nationally to be ranked among the nation’s Top-30 individual leaders in assists per game (6.2, 3rd) and steals per game (2.24, 29th).

Week 12 NCAAB Game Picks Odds Subject to Change	SPREAD	MONEYLINE	TOTAL
BYU	+2.5	TBA	U 136.5
Houston	-2.5	TBA	O 136.5

Why Bet on BYU Cougars?

BYU (14-4, 2-3 Big 12) is off an 85-78 loss at No. 25 Texas Tech on Saturday. Pop Isaacs scored a career-high 32 points with six 3-pointers and TTU stormed back from a 16-point halftime deficit. BYU was 10-for-20 on 3-pointers at halftime, but finished the game 13-for-39 – shooting just 3-for-19 in the second half. Tech improved to 2-1 against ranked opponents and responded from a road loss on Wednesday night at No. 5 Houston to also improve to 3-0 following a loss.

BYU Last 5

vs Texas Tech – L85-78

vs Iowa State – W87-72

@ UCF – W63-58

@ Baylor – L81-72

vs Cincinnati – L71-60

Tech was 13-for-14 at the free-throw line in the second half and had a 22-4 scoring advantage off turnovers in a game where Tech only had six turnovers and forced 12 from the visitors. Isaacs scored 23 of his 32 points in the second half.

“I thought the energy in the building really willed us,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “One moment that will stand out to me, is walking off the court at halftime and there might have been reason to boo with the way we played in the first half. But people were cheering for us. All I could think was this is a phenomenal place to play basketball. When you’re not playing your best, but people are cheering for you. Our guys didn’t panic. I thought Pop wasn’t going to let us lose.”

Aly Khalifa scored half of BYU’s points in the second half as the junior finished with a season-high 21 points to go along with seven rebounds and three assists. He went 9-of-17 from the floor, 2-of-8 from three and 1-of-2 from the free throw line. Richie Saunders scored in double figures for the eighth time this season as the sophomore scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half. In his first start of the season, Saunders went 6-of-9 from the floor, 2-of-2 from three and 2-of-3 from the charity stripe to go along with four rebounds and an assist.

The Cougars shot 44.3 percent from the floor compared to 47.5 percent for Tech, who shot 63.0 percent in the second half. BYU won the rebounding battle, 42-32, with 16 offensive rebounds. They turned the ball over 12 times to only four steals on the defensive end.

“We just couldn’t quite shore up the ship in the second half,” Coach Mark Pope said.

The Cougars are 2-2 against ranked opponents this season, the most wins for the program against a ranked team since 2015-16 when they defeated No. 25 Gonzaga (1/14/16) and No. 25 Saint Mary’s (2/4/16). In its 14 wins this season, BYU has outscored opponents 685-486 in the second half shooting 54.0 percent from the floor, 43.1 percent from three and 81.1 percent from the charity stripe.

Trevin Knell and Dallin Hall are shooting a combined 62.7 percent from beyond the arc (37-of-59) in those wins with Jaxson Robinson and Noah Waterman also shooting over 50.0 percent.

Waterman, who is having a breakout season in Provo, was a late scratch for Saturday with what Pope called “a health issue.” It has been reported that Waterman suffered concussion-like symptoms after BYU’s 87-72 win over No. 24 Iowa State in the previous game. Without Waterman on the court at all, and with Fousseyni Traore (hamstring) and Knell (foot) playing, but at less than 100%, the Cougars ran out of gas Saturday.

UC Irvine transfer Dawson Baker will have foot surgery soon and is lost for the season; Kansas/Gonzaga transfer Marcus Adams Jr. is traveling with the team but still “has little aches and pains that he is trying to work through,” Pope said last week, and has played in only one game.

The Cougars have connected on 10 or more triples in all but four games this season, three of those resulting in losses. They rank second in 3-point attempts per game (33.5) while ranking fifth in 3-point percentage defense holding opponents to 27.2 percent from deep. Knell ranks fifth in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage as the redshirt junior is shooting 47.0 percent from beyond the arc. He also ranks 32nd in 3-pointers per game (2.9) and 53 in 3-point field goals made (47).