In the final game of the Friday March Madness slate from Pittsburgh, UAB and Houston will meet for the right to play either Illinois or Chattanooga in the second round. UAB has experience winning in this tournament as a lower seed in the past, and will look to do so again when they face a team in Houston that made last year’s Final Four. In our March Madness predictions for Friday night, we look at UAB vs Houston in the South Region.
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UAB vs Houston Betting Pick
This game will be played at PPG Paints Arena at 9:20 PM ET on Friday, March 18, 2022.
Why Bet On Houston:
✅ UAB is an elite offensive team, led by a 20-point per game scorer in Jordan Walker. They will have to do some problem solving against an elite Houston defense, but UAB will put the ball in the bucket enough to at least make this a respectable showing and cover the sizable point spread.
✅ The formula for an upset in college basketball involves long scoring droughts for the higher seeded team. Houston is not a bad offensive team, but their strength lies with their defense, and they are certainly vulnerable to a stretch each game where they do not light up the scoreboard. Expect some pressure from UAB to force one of those droughts and for this game to get tight.
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✅ It is worth remembering that this Houston team lost one of the leaders that made them a Final Four squad last season. Marcus Sasser has missed most of this season for the Cougars, and his absence will be felt in the NCAA Tournament, where he was such an impactful player a year ago.
UAB Blazers
The UAB Blazers qualified for the NCAA Tournament by beating the rest of Conference USA in their league tournament at the end of the season. UAB survived a triple overtime game against Middle Tennessee to get to the final, where they beat Louisiana Tech once the chips were down. Now, UAB will look to breach one of the tougher defenses in college basketball to make it to the second round of the big dance.
If UAB is going to have a genuine chance to win this game, they are going to need Jordan Walker to show up in a big way. We have already seen Teddy Allen come through as a star on a lower seeded team in this tournament for New Mexico State. A similar performance may be required for the Blazers to survive and advance.
Houston Cougars
The Houston Cougars have high hopes coming into this NCAA Tournament, having made the Final Four a year ago. This season, their road to New Orleans will be a tough one, thanks in large part to the absence of Marcus Sasser. But the Cougars still have plenty of talent to overcome the Sasser injury, and will look to showcase it in this 5 vs. 12 matchup.
For Houston, the ball distribution of Jamal Shead is so important to what they do on the offensive end of the floor. Shead averages six assists per game and has an assist to turnover ratio of better than 3/1. He will need to continue to avoid turning the ball over to maximize Houston’s chances of advancing, while remaining aggressive on the offensive end.