Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs UMass Minutemen Prediction, 12/21/2023 College Basketball Picks, Best Bets & Odds

Game: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs UMass Minutemen

Date: Thursday, December 21, 2023

Location: Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, HI

TV: ESPN

The UMass Minutemen (6-2) will try to defeat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (6-3) at Stan Sheriff Center on Thursday.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets faced off with Penn State and notched a win by a score of 82-81 in their last contest. In the matter of personal fouls, the Yellow Jackets ended up with 16 and Penn State racked up 18 personal fouls. They also buried 12 out of their 33 shots from beyond the arc. Penn State walked away from this one shooting 64.7% at the charity stripe by burying 11 of 17 attempts. Additionally, Penn State collected 27 rebounds (10 offensive, 17 defensive), but wrapped up the game with no rejections. Penn State recorded 15 assists and had 13 steals for this game. In the matter of defense, Georgia Tech allowed the other team to shoot 39.2% from the field on 29 of 74 shooting. They also doled out 25 assists in this contest while forcing the opposition into 6 turnovers and getting 3 steals. In relation to grabbing boards, they earned a total of 48 with 17 of them being offensive. At the charity stripe, the Yellow Jackets made 13 of their 19 shots for a percentage of 68.4%. Georgia Tech walked away from the contest having earned a 45.1% FG percentage (32 out of 71) and made 5 out of their 22 three-point attempts.

Tafara Gapare is one guy who played a role for this contest. He went 43.8% from the floor but had no assists at the end of the game. He played for 29 mins played and pulled down 6 rebounds. He racked up 20 points on 7 out of 16 shooting.

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Georgia Tech heads into this game with a record of 6-3 on the campaign. They turn it over 13.2 times per game and as a team they commit 17.0 personal fouls per contest. As a team, Georgia Tech is pulling in 42.9 rebounds per contest and has 130 dimes this year, which has them ranked 271st in D-1 in terms of passing the ball. The Yellow Jackets are hitting 29.0% on 3-point shots (64 of 221) and 65.6% from the charity stripe. They are averaging 72.2 pts per contest (251st in the nation) on 40.6% from the field.

On defense, the Yellow Jackets have forced 9.9 turnovers per contest and they draw 18.0 fouls. They surrender 28.0% on shots from beyond the arc while they are 195th in Division 1 in PPG from their opponents (71.4). The Yellow Jackets are giving up an opponent FG percentage of 39.8% (227 of 570) and they relinquish 36.9 rebounds per contest as a team. They are currently ranked 14th in college hoops in allowing assists to the opposition with 96 conceded for the year.

The last time they took the hardwood, the UMass Minutemen got the win with a final of 87-79 when they played West Virginia. In the matter of team rebounding, UMass permitted West Virginia to snag 23 in total (6 on the offensive side). They finished the game shooting 45.2% from behind the 3-point line by shooting 14 out of 31 and walked away from this one shooting 9 out of 12 from the charity stripe (75.0%). The Minutemen allowed West Virginia to knock down 28 out of 70 tries from the field which gave them a shooting percentage of 40.0% for the game. When the final whistle was blown, the Minutemen ended up going 27 out of 62 from the field which had them sitting at 43.5%. When discussing shots from downtown, UMass knocked down 8 of their 21 attempts (38.1%). They were able to knock down 25 of the free throws for a rate of 78.1%. West Virginia had 24 personal fouls in this contest which got the Minutemen to the charity stripe for 32 tries. They coughed up the ball 14 times, while getting 5 steals for the game. The Minutemen collected 32 defensive rebounds and 12 offensive boards totaling 44 for the matchup.

Josh Cohen ended up being a factor for the Minutemen in this matchup. He buried 6 out of 12 for this game for a field goal rate of 50.0%, and had 7 rebounds. He had 19 points in his 24 mins of playing time and had 1 assist in this contest.

UMass has a record of 6-2 this season. When it comes to offensive execution, the Minutemen are hitting on 46.0% from the floor, which ranks 134th in college basketball. UMass has scored 673 points this season (84.1 per game) and they pull in 40.4 rebounds per game. They are dishing out assists 19.0 times per contest (12th in college basketball) and they turn it over 11.3 times per contest. The Minutemen are committing 19.8 fouls every game and they connect on 65.8% from the charity stripe.

The Minutemen are ranked 232nd in college basketball in points given up per game with 72.9. They are forcing their opponents into 15.0 TO's every game and allow teams to shoot 39.6% from the field (45th in the country). The UMass defense allows 34.6% on 3-pointers (63 of 182) and their opponents are connecting on 72.8% of their free throw shots. They allow 13.4 dimes and 36.5 total rebounds per game, which ranks 238th and 255th in college hoops.

Who will win tonight's NCAA basketball game against the spread?

Tony Sink's Pick: Take Georgia Tech

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