Texas vs Rice 12/12/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Rice Owls and the Texas Longhorns meet in college basketball action from the Moody Coliseum on Monday night.

The Rice Owls will look to build on their five-game win streak after an 83-71 win over Texas State last time out. Travis Evee leads the Owls in scoring with 16.9 PPG while Quincy Olivari has 15.3 PPG with 5.5 RPG this season. Mekhi Mason has 10.1 PPG with 3.4 RPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Rice up to this point in the season. Max Fiedler also has a team-high 7 RPG and 5.4 APG to lead the Owls in rebounding and assists up to this point in the year. As a team, Rice is averaging 76.4 PPG on 47.4% shooting from the field, 34.6% from three and 70.5% from the foul line up to this point in the year.

The Texas Longhorns will hope to build on an 88-43 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff last time out. Tyrese Hunter leads the Longhorns in scoring with 14.1 PPG along with 3.8 RPG and 2.3 APG while Marcus Carr has 13.9 PPG with a team-high 4.5 APG to lead the Longhorns in assists as the only other double-digit scorer for Texas so far this season. Sir’Jabari Rice has 9.8 PPG with 3.6 RPG while Timmy Allen has a team-high 6.8 RPG to lead the Longhorns in rebounding this season. As a team, Texas is averaging 81.1 PPG on 48.8% shooting from the field, 30.6% from three and 66.2% from the foul line this season.

Rice is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 6-15-2 ATS in their last 23 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600 while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record. Texas is 5-11 ATS in their last 16 games overall and 3-8 ATS in their last 11 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 11-5 in their last 16 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600.

I get the case to be made for a sizeable underdog in some spots and while Texas is really good, you’d like to see some of the shooting numbers improve for them over the course of the season. That being said, some issues shooting the three hasn’t stopped the Longhorns from routing all of the lesser competition they’ve played this season and I just don’t see Rice having enough to keep pace here. Give me the Longhorns in a rout.