The Bethune-Cookman Wildcats and the Texas Tech Red Raiders meet Tuesday in college basketball action from the United Supermarkets Arena. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for this game. Here’s a Bethune-Cookman vs. Texas Tech prediction.
Bethune Cookman Recap
The Bethune Cookman Wildcats are coming off of another improved season under Reggie Theus, finishing 17-17 overall including 11-7 in SWAC play. The Wildcats got the 5 seed in the SWAC tournament and knocked off Southern in the quarters before losing to Grambling State in the semis. BC got an invite to the CBI where they lost to Arkansas State in round one. Like a lot of SWAC rosters, the transfer portal hit hard, but Theus got a couple of solid pieces like double-digit scorers Gianni Hunt from Cal State Northridge and Daniel Rouzan from Manhattan as well as Brayon Freeman from Coastal and Antwann Jones from UCF.
Reggie Ward Jr. is the major returning piece from last year’s team that performed extremely well, but when you look at the continued improvement from Bethune Cookman under Reggie Theus, it’s looking more and more like it’s the coach who’s the MVP.
Texas Tech Recap
The Texas Tech Red Raiders had quite the successful debut under Grant McCasland, finishing 23-11 overall including 11-7 in Big 12 play. The Red Raiders would knock off BYU in the quarters of the Big 12 tournament before falling to Houston in the semifinals. As a 6-seed getting an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, Texas Tech would be ousted early, falling to NC State in the first round.
The Red Raiders lost guys like Pop Isaacs, Joe Toussaint, and Warren Washington, but reloaded bringing in some strong transfers like JT Toppin from New Mexico, Kevin Overton from Drake, and Elijah Hawkins from Minnesota to go along with returning pieces like Chance McMillian, Darrion Williams and Devan Cambridge who all scored in double figures for Texas Tech last year. I think last year was the first of many NCAA tournaments for the Red Raiders with McCasland at the helm.
Bethune Cookman vs. Texas Tech Prediction
I’m on the under here. This is a loaded Texas Tech team, but it may take some time for the new pieces to integrate with the returning ones, and a near 30-point line isn’t ideal in a spot like that. Texas Tech covering that isn’t out of the question, but it’s a big ask and last year’s Red Raider team didn’t blow a ton of teams out right out of the gate. Could BC keep it respectable? Sure, but it’s also a bit of a mismatch. I think the under’s the way to go here.