North Texas vs UMass 12/11/21 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The UMASS Minutemen and the North Texas Mean Green meet in college basketball action from the Dickies Arena on Saturday afternoon.

The UMASS Minutemen will be looking to rebound from an 82-76 loss at the hands of Northeastern in their last game. Noah Fernandes leads the Minutemen in scoring and assists with 17.2 PPG and 5.1 RPG in addition to 3.1 RPG while C.J. Kelly and Trent Buttrick each have 13+ PPG this season. Rich Kelly has 12.7 PPG and T.J. Weeks has 10 PPG with a team-high 4.8 RPG to lead the Minutemen on the glass and round out the group of double-digit scorers for UMASS so far this season. As a team, UMASS is averaging 82.1 PPG on 46.2% shooting from the field, 41.4% from three and 72% from the foul line while allowing 79.7 PPG on 48.7% shooting from the field and 38.3% from three this season.

The North Texas Mean Green will try to build off of a 73-35 win over LSU-Shreveport in their last game. Tylor Perry leads the Mean Green in scoring with 13.9 PPG while Thomas Bell has 13.4 PPG with a team-high 6.4 RPG to lead the Mean Green on the glass and make up the other half of the pair of double-digit scorers for North Texas so far this season. Mardrez McBride has 9 PPG with 3.7 RPG and Rubin Jones has 8.9 PPG with a team-high 2.4 APG this season. As a team, North Texas is averaging 66.6 PPG on 42.2% shooting from the field, 32.6% from three and 68.9% from the foul line while allowing 55.3 PPG on 42.9% shooting from the field and 30% from three this season.

UMASS is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 Saturday games and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 neutral site games while the over is 7-0 in their last 7 games overall. North Texas is 8-2-1 ATS in their last 11 games following a win and 8-2 ATS in their last 10 neutral site games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall.

I get that the whole defense is priority for certain teams and you have one of the best in North Texas against one of the best shooting teams in the country in UMass. However, this is a spot where I’m going to side with offense as North Texas’ defense can only get them so far and I worry that against a team with the scoring chops of UMass, that the Mean Green won’t be able to hang here. Give me the Minutemen and the points in this one.