North Texas Mean Green (18-12) vs. Florida Atlantic Owls (23-8)
March 15, 2024 7:00 pm EDT
The Line: Florida Atlantic Owls -4.5 ; Over/Under: -
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The North Texas Mean Green and the Florida Atlantic Owls meet Friday in AAC Tournament college basketball action from Dickies Arena. Let’s get into our North Texas vs Florida Atlantic prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
North Texas Mean Green
The Mean Green had a very nice six-game win streak in December/January to move to 11-5 overall. North Texas suffered on a 3-7 run over the next 10 games, though. Since then the Green are 4-1 with wins over Tulane (twice), East Carolina and Rice around a lone loss to Florida Atlantic.
On Thursday in the tournament game versus Tulane, North Texas held a slim three-point lead at the break. The Mean Green hit a 45-38 run the rest of the way and powered out a win 81-71 in the end. Top scorer CJ Noland came off the bench to contribute 23 points with five assists and four rebounds.
FAU Owls
Over on the Owls’ side, they lost just four of their first 22 games, then hit a sketchy 3-3 run in February. Those losses came versus UAB, South Florida and Memphis. In their last trio it’s been all wins for Florida Atlantic though. Those were over Tulane, North Texas and Memphis.
Over the weekend in the Memphis matchup, the Owls took a 41-35 advantage into the second half. Florida Atlantic hit a 51-49 run the rest of the way and pulled off the win 92-84. Vladislav Goldin (12 rebounds) and Bryan Greenlee (four rebounds) each scored a team-high 21 points.
ANDREW’S FREE NORTH TEXAS VS FLORIDA ATLANTIC PREDICTION
I’ll probably lean toward North Texas. Also probably not touching this one, though. The Green played pretty well against Tulane in their last game despite a tepid 71.4 percent from the line. North Texas secured 38 rebounds in that one and scored 17 points off 14 Tulane turnovers.
As for FAU, they put up a pretty solid all-around effort against Memphis in their last outing—but did go a little permissive on the defensive side. There have been some pretty close games in the last quartet for the Owls as well. In the last meeting between these teams on March 6, Florida Atlantic took an 80-76 road win. The Owls shot a nice 53.2 percent from the field in that one but also coughed up 13 turnovers. If the Mean Green continue to stay hot in this rematch I think they can follow along closely enough to eke out a cover. It’ll be a fun matchup.
