North Texas vs UAB College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 3/5/21

The UAB Blazers and the North Texas Mean Green meet in college basketball action from the UNT Coliseum on Friday night.

The UAB Blazers will look to bounce back from a 96-79 loss to UTSA in their last matchup. Michael Ertel leads the Blazers in scoring with 12.3 PPG while Tavin Lovan is right behind with 12.2 PPG, 3.8 RPG and a team-high 2.3 APG this season. Quan Jackson has 11.2 PPG with 5.4 RPG and Jalen Benjamin has 10.4 PPG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for UAB up to this point in the season. Trey Jemison has 7.3 PPG and a team-high 7.1 RPG while Kassim Nicholson has 6.6 PPG and 6.6 RPG as well this year. As a team, UAB is averaging 73.7 PPG on 45.6% shooting from the field and 30% from three while allowing 60.5 PPG on 40.1% shooting from the field and 30.7% from three this season.

The North Texas Mean Green will look to bounce back from a 73-72 loss to Marshall last time out. Javion Hamley leads the Mean Green in scoring and assists with 14 PPG and 4 APG while James Reese has 11.5 PPG and 4.4 RPG and Zachary Simmons has 10.3 PPG and a team-high 6.2 RPG to lead North Texas in rebounding and to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for North Texas up to this point in the season. Thomas Bell also has 9.9 PPG with 5.7 RPG as well for the Mean Green this season. As a team, North Texas is averaging 72.6 PPG on 49.2% shooting from the field and 37.9% from the 3-point line while allowing 62.3 PPG on 41.6% shooting from the field and 33.2% from three this season.

UAB is 1-4-1 ATS in their last 6 road games and 4-9 ATS in their last 13 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 8-1-3 in their last 12 games following a loss. North Texas is 16-5 ATS in their last 21 home games and 3-0-1 ATS in their last 4 games overall while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 overall. The underdog is 5-2 ATS in the last 7 meetings between these two teams.

It’s hard to pick a side here between two sides that play really good defense, so maybe taking the points with UAB is a decent play. However, the history of these two teams has been a lot of low-scoring games, but last year’s total was the lowest ever between the two and it was the first time that it went over. The total is almost the same here and I think we’re going over again. These two teams are combining for over 130 points in conference play this year and I could easily see both sides getting into the high 60s so give me the over in this one.