Thursday night college basketball and we will see the Cincinnati Bearcats travel to Memphis, Tennessee to take on the Memphis Tigers. The game has a start time of 7:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN . Current Vegas betting odds have the game listed as a Pick, while the total is set at 119.
Analysis: The Cincinnati Bearcats come in off a hard fought 62-56 loss to the UConn Huskies. The loss snapped a 4 game Bearcat winning streak and dropped them to 11-4 on the year, which includes marks of 2-1 in the AAC and 1-2 in true road games. Cincinnati is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games overall, but just 6-16 ATS in their last 22 road games and 6-15 ATS in their last 21 road games vs. a team with a winning home record. The Bearcats are not a good offensive team, as they come in ranked 293rd in scoring (62.5 ppg), 176th in shooting (43.6%), 313th in 3 point shooting (29.5%) and 206th in FT shooting (67.8%). Defensively the Bearcats have been very good, ranking 6th in points allowed (54.7 ppg), 28th in defensive FG% (37.8%) and 88th in 3 point defense (31.1%).
The Memphis Tigers come into this game having lost 2 of their last 3 games. In their last game they did beat Houston 62-44, which was heir 2nd blowout win over the Cougars in the last 2 weeks. Memphis is now 9-6 overall, 7-3 at home and 2-2 in the AAC. Memphis is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games after allowing less than 50 points in their previous game, but 3-9 ATS in their last 12 games following a S.U. win and 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games vs. a team with a winning % above .600. Memphis has not been a great offensive team this year, ranking 186th in scoring (67.5 ppg), 128th in shooting (44.4%), 190th in 3 point shooting (33.7%) and 174th in FT shooting (68.8%). Defensively the Tigers have been very good, as they come in ranked 55th in points allowed (60.9 ppg), 25th in defensive FG% (47.8%) and 5th in 3 point defense (26.2%).
Pick: Going with the Under in this game. The Memphis Tigers are not that up and down the court team that they have been in the past and that is just fine with a Bearcats squad that loves to slow the pace and rely more on their defense to win games. Speaking of that Bearcat defense, they are one of the best in the Nation, allowing just 54.7 ppg overall and just 53.6 ppg in their last 5 games. The Tigers also know how to play some defense as hey come in alowed just 59.3 ppg at home and just 59.2 ppg in their last 5. Memphis has averaged 71.6 ppg at home, but have not faced a defense like this yet and we note that the Bearcats have averaged just 62.3 ppg on the road. The Tigers platy at a medium pace, while the Bearcats will slow it down, plus we note that both team are poor for long range and the charity stripe. Just too much defense and too liile offense to think this one can hit 120 points. 56-55 sounds about right here.
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