Cincinnati vs TCU Prediction 2/22/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The TCU Horned Frogs and the Cincinnati Bearcats meet Saturday in college basketball action from Fifth Third Arena. Here’s a Cincinnati vs TCU prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Cincinnati vs TCU pick.

TCU Horned Frogs Betting Preview

The Frogs have had quite the choppy year overall so far. That said, TCU has been doing much better since February began. The team’s first 17 games were a 10-7 run, featuring losses to Michigan, Santa Clara, Colorado State, Vanderbilt, Arizona, Houston and Utah. The wins otherwise were over Florida A&M, Florida Gulf Coast, Texas State, Alcorn State, Xavier, South Alabama, Montana State, Kansas State, BYU and Baylor. Three more losses to Kansas, UCF and Texas Tech came next. Since then the Frogs have been on a 5-1 run with a lone loss to Iowa State. TCU has otherwise taken out Colorado, West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Arizona State and Texas Tech in that time. Overall that gives the Horned Frogs a 15-11 record so far through their first 26 games of the 2024-25 season.

On Tuesday in their matchup with Texas Tech, TCU kept their run going with an upset victory at home. The Frogs were up 36-28 by halftime, then hit a 38-33 second half run for a tight win 69-66 in the end. Noah Reynolds led the starters with 16 points and three boards with one assist, while Ernest Udeh doubled up on 11 points, 10 boards, one assist and one steal. Trazarien White posted a nice game off the bench with 16 points, four rebounds, one assist, two steals and one turnover in 27 minutes of work during the victory effort.

Cincinnati Bearcats Betting Preview

Over on the Bearcats’ side, they had a rough run going in January but aside from that they’ve been pretty good in the record column thus far. Cincinnati kicked things off with a nice 10-1 run featuring wins over AR-Pine Bluff, Morehead State, Nicholls, Northern Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Alabama State, Howard, Xavier, Dayton and Grambling. a 2-8 run came next with losses to Kansas State, Arizona, Baylor, Kansas, Texas Tech, BYU, Utah and West Virginia among wins over Colorado and Arizona State otherwise. Wins over UCF, BYU and Utah came next, then a loss to Iowa State. That gave the Bearcats a 15-10 run through their first 25 games this year.

On Wednesday versus West Virginia, Cincinnati was down 29-27 by halftime. The Bearcats didn’t end up getting any closer on a 33-32 run and lost the game in the end 62-59. Leading the team in the losing effort were Jizzle James and Day Day Thomas, each with 13 points.

Why the Cincinnati Bearcats will win

• Cincinnati has won each of its last 14 games at Fifth Third Arena when playing with a rest disadvantage.
• TCU has lost the first half in each of its last seven Saturday day road games against the Big 12 Conference.

Why the TCU Horned Frogs will win

• Cincinnati has lost each of its last five games following a road loss.
• TCU has won each of its last four games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• TCU has won the first half in each of its last three games against the Big 12 Conference.

Cincinnati vs TCU Prediction

I’ll stay with Cincinnati, but you could call this one either way. The Bearcats need a good bounce-back here following their latest loss as well. On Wednesday versus West Virginia, Cincinnati did well on defense, holding the Mountaineers to just 40 percent shooting. The Bearcats didn’t shoot all that well themselves though (41 percent) and missed four of their seven free throws (28.6 percent). WVU conversely hit 12-of-14 (85.7 percent) from the line, which was a key factor in the loss. Cincinnati has now lost consecutive games, and they’ve been below 67 points in four of their last five losses.

As for TCU, they’re riding high after their big win over a great Texas Tech team. The Frogs didn’t shoot all that great in the victory (41.4 percent) but they were solid on the boards with a 37-29 advantage (15-7 offensive) that helped offset the Raiders’ 49.1 percent shooting from the field. TCU has three straight wins in the bag with 69 or more points in each. That said, I like Cincinnati to stand tall at home and fend them off. Should be a great one to watch regardless.