Back on Jan. 22 when Temple took down the Houston Cougars in Houston, you had to wonder if that was a wake-up call for Kelvin Sampson’s team that was clearly on cruise-control in the AAC, and that’s exactly what it was.
Since then, the Cougars are 5-0 to get to 23-2 and have an average margin of victory of 16 points a game.
16 points is about how big of a favorite that they are on the road tonight against the SMU Mustangs. SMU is 9-17 (4-9) and only ahead of Tulsa in the AAC.
Let’s check out the odds for this game:
Houston vs. SMU odds, spread and total
Houston vs. SMU prediction and pick
Houston snapped back into its dominant ways and its most recent win was the most emphatic, an 80-42 win over Tulsa.
SMU is nearly in last in the conference, but the team that they’re ahead of is Tulsa, so Houston can continue to beat up on sub-par AAC competition.
SMU doesn’t only have a bad record, it is also very poor against the spread, going 9-16-1.
Meanwhile, Houston is 8-1 ATS in its last nine road games and 16-9 ATS on the year. SMU struggles on offense as is, and it won’t get better against Marcus Sasser, J’Wan Roberts, Jamal Shead and Ja’Vier Francis, who are all defensive forces.
The Cougars are No. 1 in opponent points per game and opponent field goal percentage.
The only advantage that the Mustangs could have is their pace of play. They want to get out and run which has led them to be 32nd in the country in possessions per game.
So, even if they aren’t efficient, they’ll get a lot of chances to score. That makes the over an enticing play, but Houston is just too strong defensively and has been blowing teams out lately.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change
