North Texas vs Virginia 3/20/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Virginia Cavaliers and the North Texas Mean Green meet in an NIT second round matchup in college basketball action from the UNT Coliseum on Sunday.

The Virginia Cavaliers booked their spot in the second round with a 60-57 win over Mississippi State last time out. Jayden Gardner led the Cavs with 16 points on 7 of 13 shooting while Reece Beekman had 14 points on 5 of 7 shooting with 6 assists as the only other double-digit scorer for Virginia up to this point in the season. Kihei Clak had 8 points with a team-high 9 assists and Francisco Caffaro had a team-high 5 rebounds.

The North Texas Mean Green will try to advance to the quarterfinals after a 67-63 OT win over Texas State last time out. Mardrez McBride led the Mean Green in scoring with 24 points on 8 of 18 shooting with 6 threes while Rubin Jones had 15 points on 4 of 9 shooting with 3 triples. Tylor Perry and Thomas Bell each had 10 points to round out the group of double-digit scorers for North Texas in the win with Perry adding 4 assists while Bell had 7 rebounds with a team-high 5 assists. Abou Ousmane had a team-high 10 rebounds and JJ Murray added 8 boards as well in the win.

Virginia is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 Sunday games and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600 while the over is 8-2-1 in their last 11 road games. North Texas is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games as a favorite while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600.

I get the case to be made for either side here as this is going to be a defensive war. With that said, this is a rock bottom total, but I still don’t think it’s low enough. These are the two slowest paced teams in the country and games that don’t get to 100 points are common for both of these teams. I think we could see a first to 50 wins kind of game if we even get that high, so give me the under in this one.