Hawaii vs UC Riverside 3/10/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The UC-Riverside Highlanders and the Hawaii Warriors meet in college basketball action from the Dollar Loan Center on Thursday night.

The UC-Riverside Highlanders come into the conference tournament as the #6 seed, finishing at 16-11 overall including a 9-6 mark in Big West conference play. Zyon Pullin leads the Highlanders in scoring and assists with 14 PPG and 4.3 APG along with 5.6 RPG while J.P. Moorman II has 11.1 PPG with 5.6 RPG and Callum McRae and Dominick Pickett each have 11+ PPG this season with McRae logging a team-high 8 RPG this season. Flynn Cameron also has 10.3 PPG up to this point in the season. As a team, UC-Riverside is averaging 66.6 PPG on 44.4% shooting from the field, 31.5% from three and 71.3% from the foul line while allowing 63.6 PPG on 41.6% shooting from the field and 29.4% from three this season.

The Hawaii Warriors enter as the #3 seed in the conference tournament after going 16-10 overall including a 10-5 mark in conference play this season. Noel Coleman leads the Warriors in scoring with 14.8 PPG while Bernardo da Silva has 10 PPG with 6.4 RPG and Jerome Desrosiers has 11 PPG with a team-high 6.5 RPG. Junior Madut has 10.7 PPG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for the Warriors this season. JoVon McClanahan also has a team-high 3.7 APG as well for the Warriors this season. As a team, Hawaii is averaging 69.8 PPG on 44.7% shooting from the field, 36.1% from three and 73.6% from the foul line while allowing 64.3 PPG on 42% shooting from the field and 30.3% from three this season.

UC-Riverside is 6-0 ATS in their last 6 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600 and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 games as a favorite. Hawaii is 0-2-2 ATS in their last 4 games as an underdog and 1-3-2 ATS in their last 6 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 8-1 in their last 9 games as an underdog.

I get why you could maybe look Hawaii’s way here, but the reality is that UC-Riverside has been the far more consistent team over the course of the season. Hawaii’s had their fair share of success as well this season, but the Warriors can struggle offensively and I look for that to be the case here as well. Give me the Highlanders here.