East Carolina vs Cincinnati 1/30/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Cincinnati Bearcats and the East Carolina Pirates meet Sunday in college basketball action from Minges Coliseum. Cincinnati is sitting at 14-6 overall this year. The Bearcats lost to Temple in their last game. As for East Carolina, they’re currently 11-8 and fresh off a loss to Memphis. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Cincinnati posted a 10-3 start to the season, falling to Arkansas, Monmouth and Xavier during that time. Since then the Bearcats are on a 3-4 stretch. The wins were over SMU, East Carolina, Wichita State and Tulsa; the losses were to Tulane, Memphis and Temple. 

In the Temple game on Tuesday, the Bearcats had a 37-25 lead by halftime. Cincinnati was outscored 36-21 in the second half on the way to a rough 61-58 defeat. David DeJulius topped the team on 15 points and four rebounds in the loss. 

Over on the East Carolina side, their year started at 10-3 as well with losses to Oklahoma, Davidson and Liberty. The Pirates are on a 1-5 run in their last half-dozen games, though. The losses have come to Temple, Cincinnati, UCF, Houston and Memphis. 

Matched up against Memphis on Thursday, the Pirates kept the pace pretty well in the first half but then hit a 43-30 deficit after the break. The result was a 71-54 defeat. Tristen Newton was the leading scorer with 19 points, four rebounds and three assists. 

The Pirates are 1-4 ATS in their last five Sunday games and 5-15 ATS in their last 20 after an ATS loss. The over is 7-3 in East Carolina’s last 10 overall. 

Meanwhile, the Bearcats are 1-5-1 ATS in the last seven road games and 25-59-2 ATS in their last 86 Sunday games. The under is 11-5 in Cincinnati’s last 16 overall. 

PICK: I’m probably going to stay with Cincinnati. The Bearcats are coming off a pretty abysmal game versus Temple and will need a sizable bounce-back here, though. Cincinnati shot just 29.4 percent in their latest loss and had a 50-42 rebounding deficit. The Bearcats had hit 79 or more points in three of their previous four games. 

As for East Carolina, they’ve had a couple of ugly offensive games in their last pair as well (90 total points combined). I like the Pirates to improve their scoring here as well, but it’s probably still the Bearcats’ cover.