Louisiana Tech vs Rice 1/27/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Rice Owls and the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs meet in college basketball action from the Thomas Assembly Center on Thursday night.

The Rice Owls come into this game on the heels of their 67-64 loss to Charlotte last time out. Carl Pierre leads the Owls in scoring with 15.4 PPG along with 4.5 RPG while Travis Evee has 15.1 PPG with a team-high 3 APG to lead the Owls in assists and to round out the pair of double-digit scorers for Rice this season. Chris Mullins has 9.6 PPG with 2.6 APG while Max Fiedler has 8.7 PPG with a team-high 7.9 RPG to lead Rice in rebounding. As a team, Rice is averaging 76.5 PPG on 46.2% shooting from the field, 39.1% from three and 71.7% from the foul line while allowing 73.7 PPG on 43.5% shooting from the floor and 30.8% from three this season.

The Louisiana Tech bulldogs will try to bounce back from an 83-76 loss to UAB last time out. Kenneth Lofton Jr. leads the Bulldogs in scoring and rebounding with 16.9 PPG and 10.6 RPG, averaging a double-double per game while Amorie Archibald has 14.1 PPG and 4 RPG this season. Keaston Willis has 11.2 PPG with 3.9 RPG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for LA Tech so far this season. Cobe Williams has 9.9 PPG and a team-high 3.7 APG as well on the year for the Bulldogs, leading the team in assists. As a team, LA Tech is averaging 78.7 PPG on 46.5% shooting from the field, 33.5% from three and 71.4% from the foul line while allowing 68 PPG on 40.4% shooting from the field and 33.9% from three this season.

Rice is 1-7-1 ATS in their last 9 games against a team with a winning record and 5-13 ATS in their last 18 road games while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games following a loss. Louisiana Tech is 29-11-1 ATS in their last 41 games overall and 5-2-1 ATS in their last 8 home games while the under is 6-2 in their last 8 games against a team with a winning record.

I get the case to be made either way here, but realistically, I’m leaning towards the over in this one. LA Tech has a beast in Kenneth Lofton Jr. and I think the Bulldogs will be able to get whatever they want inside, but the Bulldogs have a tendency to allow teams to shoot the three fairly well and this Rice team is not a team you want to have go bombs away on you from behind the arc. I think this is a high-scoring affair so give me the over in this one.