Rice Owls vs Texas Arlington Mavericks Point Spread Picks

The Texas Arlington Mavericks are out of the gate strong as they have opened the season at 5-1. They have upset BYU, and came within a point of Alabama. This is a team that has shot 49% or better in five of their six games, and I would expect those numbers to begin to regress, so the value appears to be on the UNDER in this one. At 2-4, Rice has taken the air out of the ball quite frequently, and has already played two games where they attempted 50 or fewer shots. There will also likely be a lot of lost possessions as the Owls have played chaotic games that have resulted 33 turnovers a game on average by both teams combined. I think this one is going to struggle to get up around the 160-point mark, so play this one to finish UNDER.

Rebuilding Rice is home, but has a losing record already, just like last year when they won 12 games. From that team Rice lost guard Dan Peera and their leading scorer Seth Gearhart. At home the Owls are getting outscored, allowing 81 points per game. Rice is also 0-4 ATS at home against a team with a winning road record. They face a talented Texas-Arlington offense that likes to run, off to a great start. The UT-Arlington Mavericks are led by sophomore guard Erick Neal (12 points per game) and 6-7 forward Kevin Hervey (15.8 points per game, 8 rebounds per game), with 6-8 Jorge Bilbao (5.8 rebounds per game) off a deep bench. The UTA-Mavericks are 6-1 ATS in their last seven non-conference games. That includes wins at Ohio State (73-68) as a +18 dog and at Memphis (68-64) as +12 dog. They outrebounded the Buckeyes 46-37 and held Memphis to 29.6% shooting. Play Texas-Arlington.