Houston vs East Carolina 1/22/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The East Carolina Pirates and the Houston Cougars meet Saturday in college basketball action from Hofheinz Pavilion. East Carolina is currently 11-6 on the year. The Pirates are coming off a loss to UCF. As for the Cougars, they’re 16-2 this season and coming off a win over South Florida. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place. 

East Carolina started out the year on a 10-3 clip. The losses in that stretch were to Oklahoma, Davidson and Liberty. Since then it’s been a 1-3 run for the Pirates with a win over Memphis amid losses to Temple, Cincinnati and UCF. 

In Tuesday’s UCF matchup, the Pirates had a 44-28 lead at the break. East Carolina was outscored 44-28 in the second half and ended up falling in overtime 92-85. Leading the scoring was Tristen Newton with 27 points, five rebounds and three assists. 

Over on the Houston side, they went 8-2 over the first 10 games. Since then it’s been a string of wins over Louisiana, Oklahoma State, Texas State, Temple, South Florida, Wichita State, Tulsa and South Florida to move to 16-2 on the year. 

Matched up against South Florida on Tuesday, the Cougars jumped out to a 38-18 halftime lead and cruised to the 74-55 win. Kyler Edwards was tops on 23 points with seven rebounds and four assists. Fabian White chipped in 16 points as well. 

The Cougars are 19-9 ATS in their last 28 at home and 7-3 ATS in their last 10 at home versus a team with a losing road record. The under is 14-6 in Houston’s last 20 Saturday games. 

Meanwhile, the Pirates are 4-1 ATS in their last five Saturday games and 5-13 ATS in their last 18 after an ATS loss. The under is 4-1 in ECU’s last five Saturday games. 

PICK: I’m probably sticking with Houston here, even though it’s a pretty thick line. The Cougars have had a couple of close calls during this nice eight-game win streak, but overall it’s been a dominant run. Houston has hit 71 or more points in nine of their last 11 outings, so they’re pretty consistent on the scoreboard these days. As for East Carolina, they’ve had some close calls lately themselves—the team has generally been good offensively, though. I like the Pirates to hang around for the first half or so before Houston pulls away for the cover.