Houston Cougars vs Temple Owls Prediction, 2/5/2023 College Basketball Picks, Best Bets & Odds

Game: Houston Cougars vs Temple Owls

Date: Sunday, February 5, 2023

Location: Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, PA

TV: ESPN2

The Temple Owls (14-9) welcome the Houston Cougars (21-2) at Liacouras Center on Sunday.

The Houston Cougars stepped onto the hardwood against Wichita State and earned the victory with a final of 70-61 in their last contest. Regarding fouls, the Cougars walked away with 18 and Wichita State recorded 14 fouls. They also converted 3 of 20 attempts from long range. Wichita State finished the game at 69.6% when shooting free throws by burying 16 of 23 shots. On top of that, Wichita State had 33 rebounds (11 offensive, 22 defensive), but wasn't able to put a block in the stat sheet. Wichita State earned 8 dimes and had 3 steals in the game. When talking about defense, Houston allowed the other team to shoot 38.9% from the field on 21 of 54 shooting. They also doled out 14 assists for the contest in addition to forcing 12 turnovers and having 8 steals. When it comes to getting rebounds, they earned 29 with 7 of them being of the offensive sort. From the charity stripe, the Cougars knocked down 13 of their 15 shots for a percentage of 86.7%. Houston ended the contest with a 44.6% field goal percentage (25 out of 56) and buried 7 out of their 20 3-pointers.

Marcus Sasser is one player who was a major contributor for the game. He scored 15 points on 4 out of 12 shooting. He was on the hardwood for 36 mins played and collected 2 rebounds. He ended up shooting 33.3% from the field and also recorded 3 assists.

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Houston steps onto the hardwood with a mark of 21-2 so far this year. They currently have an average of 75.2 pts per game (100th in Division 1) on 47.0% from the field. The Cougars are shooting 35.7% on three-point shots (177 of 496) and 70.4% from the charity stripe. As a unit, Houston is snagging 38.9 rebounds per game and has tallied 332 dimes on the campaign, which is 88th in college hoops in terms of passing the rock. They are turning it over 9.7 times per game and as a squad they are committing 15.7 fouls on a nightly basis.

On defense, the Cougars are forcing 14.6 turnovers per contest and they draw 15.9 fouls. They currently rank 21st in the country in giving up assists to the opposition with 221 surrendered on the campaign. The Cougars are giving up an opponent shooting percentage of 35.3% (423 of 1,197) and they concede 31.7 boards per contest as a basketball team. They are giving up 26.3% on shots from downtown while they are 3rd in Division 1 in PPG allowed (55.2).

When they last stepped on the court, the Temple Owls took home the win by a final score of 77-70 against UCF. With respect to rebounds, Temple permitted UCF to get 33 in total (8 on the offensive side). They finished 37.5% from distance by going 6 out of 16 and walked away from this one shooting 18 out of 25 from the charity stripe (72.0%). The Owls permitted UCF to make 23 of 58 tries from the field which had them shooting 39.7% in this matchup. When all was said and done, the Owls shot 26 out of 57 from the field which gave them a percentage of 45.6%. Regarding shooting from 3-point land, Temple converted 8 of 23 tries (34.8%). They were able to knock down 17 of the free throw attempts for a rate of 70.8%. UCF committed 18 fouls for the matchup which took the Owls to the free throw line for a total of 24 attempts. They coughed it up 17 times, while getting 8 steals in the game. The Owls corralled 26 defensive rebounds and 9 offensive boards for a total of 35 in the matchup.

Khalif Battle ended up being important for the Owls in this matchup. He totaled 26 points in his 35 minutes on the hardwood and totaled 3 assists for the matchup. He converted 7 out of 14 for this contest giving him a rate of 50.0%, and had 7 rebounds.

Temple has a mark of 14-9 on the campaign. The Owls are committing 16.8 fouls per contest and they shoot 77.1% from the free throw line. They are assisting teammates 13.3 times per game (185th in the nation) and they are giving up possession 13.8 times per contest. Temple has scored 1,597 pts this year (69.4 per contest) and they average 35.9 boards per game. When it comes to executing on offense, the Owls are shooting 42.1% from the floor, which ranks 305th in the country.

The Owls on the defensive side of the court are 144th in college basketball in points given up per game with 68.1. They are forcing their opponents into 11.8 TO's per game and allow teams to shoot 41.7% from the field (85th in the nation). The Temple defense allows 30.7% on three-point shots (136 of 443) and opponents are knocking down 67.9% of their free throw attempts. They give up 12.3 dimes and 35.9 rebounds every game, which has them ranked 156th and 284th in the nation.

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

Guy Bruhn's Pick: Take Houston

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