Tulane Green Wave (13-11) vs. East Carolina Pirates (13-12)
February 18, 2024 2:00 pm EDT
The Line: East Carolina Pirates -1; Over/Under: 149
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The Tulane Green Wave and the East Carolina Pirates meet Sunday in college basketball action from Minges Coliseum. Tulane comes into this game at 13-11 overall after a loss to SMU on Thursday. As for East Carolina, they beat Wichita State in their most recent outing, lifting the Pirates to 13-12 on the year. Let’s get into our Tulane vs. East Carolina prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Tulane Green Wave
The Wave only lost six of their first 18 games, falling to Bradley, Mississippi State, George Mason, North Texas, FAU and UAB in that time. Tulane is just 1-5 since then with losses to UTSA, Charlotte, SMU (twice) and Memphis alongside a lone win over Temple.
In the rematch with SMU on Thursday, the Green Wave held a four-point edge after the first half. Tulane couldn’t keep it going in the second with a 50-38 deficit from there however and lost 87-79. Tops in scoring was Kevin Cross on 20 points with six rebounds and four assists.
East Carolina Pirates
Over on the Pirates’ side, they’ve been hovering around the .500 mark for most of the season. East Carolina was 9-10 back on January 20, and since then it’s been a 4-2 stretch. The wins in that time have come versus Wichita State (twice), Temple and UTSA.
In the Wichita State rematch back on Thursday, the Pirates went into the locker room with a 38-27 edge. East Carolina cruised from there on a 30-28 run and took the victory 68-55 in the end. Brandon Johnson (10 rebounds) and RJ Felton were the top team scorers on 21 points each.
ANDREW’S FREE TULANE VS EAST CAROLINA PREDICTION
I’ll stay with East Carolina. This should be a pretty interesting matchup, though. The Pirates powered past a struggling Wichita State team pretty easily in their last outing, hitting 45.5 percent from the field with 33 rebounds and 18 team assists. The scoring hasn’t been great for East Carolina lately though; they’ve been below 70 points in seven of the last nine games (a 4-5 run).
As for Tulane, they’ve hit 71 or more points in seven straight outings but they’re also giving up quite a bit on defense these days. I like this one to be a pretty high-total finish; if the Pirates can get their offense going they should have plenty of scoring opportunities. It’ll be a fun one to watch, and really could go either way.
