The Pepperdine Waves and the Rice Owls meet Tuesday in college basketball action from Tudor Fieldhouse. Pepperdine is fresh off a 15-12 overall run last year, leaving the team in fourth place in the West Coast Conference. As for Rice, they went 15-13 last season and ended up one spot out of the basement in the CUSA West. Check back all season long for free college football picks at Sports Chat Place.
Pepperdine had an up-and-down campaign in 2020-21, going 15-12 overall and 7-6 in WCC play. The Waves ended up in fourth place in the conference standings behind Gonzaga (15-0), BYU (10-3) and Loyola Marymount (7-5).
Pepperdine took out Santa Clara 78-70 in the Quarterfinals of the WCC Tournament but lost in OT to BYU 82-77 in the semis. The Waves got an invite to the CBI, where they beat Longwood, Bellarmine and Coastal Carolina en route to a tournament championship.
Over on the Rice side, they’re coming off a disappointing campaign at 15-13 overall and 6-10 in Conference USA games. The Owls landed one spot out of the basement in a competitive West Division, ahead of only Southern Miss at 4-13.
Rice skidded into the postseason with a 1-4 run over their last five games, but turned it on once the Conference USA Tournament started. The Owls beat Southern Miss 61-52 and Marshall 72-68 before falling to UAB 73-60 in the Quarterfinals.
The Waves are 7-2 ATS in their last nine Tuesday games and 18-7-2 ATS in their last 27 overall. Pepperdine is 20-8-2 ATS in their last 30 road games.
Meanwhile, the Owls are 8-0-1 ATS in their last nine at home and the under is 4-0 in their last four overall. The under is 14-4 in Rice’s last 18 Tuesday games.
PICK: I’m going to try Rice, but staying away. There are a ton of question marks surrounding Pepperdine coming into this season, most of them surrounding their departures. The Waves lose Colbey Ross and Kessler Edwards this season, which will leave a huge production gap in the roster. Lorenzo Romar has some solid transfers to work with this year but it’s likely going to take a while for the team to find chemistry around the Waves’ rapid brand of offense. To me this seems like a growth year for Pepperdine, but we’ll see how it pans out.