West Virginia vs Houston Prediction 1/29/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The Houston Cougars and the West Virginia Mountaineers meet Wednesday in college basketball action from WVU Coliseum. Here’s a West Virginia vs Houston prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best West Virginia vs Houston pick.

Houston Cougars Betting Preview

Houston has worked their way up to the top tier of competition nationally this year, but things didn’t start out so well. The Cougars had a sketchy start initially, however since the beginning of December, it’s been a nice winning streak. Houston opened on a 4-3 stretch with wins over Jackson State, Louisiana, Hofstra, and Notre Dame. The losses otherwise in that time were versus Auburn, Alabama, and San Diego State. The Cougars’ winning streak began on December 7 versus Butler. They’ve rattled off victories over Troy, Toledo, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Oklahoma State, BYU, TCU, Kansas State, West Virginia, UCF, Utah, and Kansas since then in succession, equating to a 16-3 overall run through the first 19 games of the year.

In the Kansas matchup on the road Saturday, the Cougars were pushed to their limit. Houston held a 38-31 deficit by the break, but eventually came back and powered out a nice 92-86 victory in double overtime. Topping the team in scoring was J’Wan Roberts with 24 points, nine boards, and five assists with one steal in 46 minutes of work. Milos Uzan added 17 points with nine rebounds and nine assists, and Mylik Wilson put up 18 points with six rebounds.

West Virginia Mountaineers Betting Preview

Over on the West Virginia side, they did quite well over their first 13 games of the season, taking only a couple of losses in that time. The Mountaineers have struggled since the calendar flipped over to 2025, however. WVU hit a nice 11-2 opening with losses to only Pittsburgh and Louisville. Otherwise, it was wins over Robert Morris, UMass, Iona, Gonzaga, Arizona, Georgetown, North Carolina Central, Bethune-Cookman, Mercyhurst, Kansas, and Oklahoma State in that time. West Virginia is just 2-4 in their last six games since then, though. The two wins came versus Colorado and Iowa State. The quartet of losses were to Arizona, Houston, Arizona State, and Kansas State otherwise for a 13-6 overall run through 19 games this year.

In the Kansas State game over the weekend, the Mountaineers were demolished in the first half 42-18. West Virginia got better from there on a 42-31 run, but it was far from enough for the comeback in a 73-60 loss. Javon Small was the team’s leading scorer with 22 points with five assists, three steals, and two rebounds. Toby Okani put up 13 points with five boards and three assists, while Sencire Harris had 12 points with nine boards, two assists, and two steals.

Why the West Virginia Mountaineers will win

• West Virginia has won nine of its last 11 games at WVU Coliseum.
• The home team has won the first half in each of Houston’s last four games.

Why the Houston Cougars will win

• Houston has won each of its last 16 night games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• West Virginia has lost each of its last six night games against Top 10 AP-ranked opponents.
• Houston has won the first half in each of its last 11 night games against non-AP-ranked opponents.

West Virginia vs Houston Prediction

I’m going to stay with Houston. The Cougars are fresh off an epic marathon win over a very good Kansas team at Allen Fieldhouse, shooting 47.9 percent along the way. Houston’s ball control was great in that one (five turnovers) as opposed to the Jayhawks’ (12 turnovers for 17 points). That said, the Cougars hit just 14-of-25 (56 percent) from the line and got out-rebounded 45-43 overall. Still, it moves the win streak to 12 games, with Houston scoring 69 or more points in nine of those.

One of those victories came versus West Virginia at home on January 15 in a 70-54 finish. Houston was up 40-27 by the break in that one and ended up shooting 49 percent from the field with 11-of-26 (42.3 percent) from 3-point range. The Cougars also dominated on the boards 30-23 and scored 25 points off 12 Mountaineers turnovers. Even with West Virginia struggling in the win column right now, Houston can’t rely on mistakes in this road rematch. So long as they’ve fully recovered from the win over Kansas however, I like the Cougars to keep it going.