College Basketball Bets & Predictions: North Texas vs. Temple (Sunday)
Welcome back to another Sunday of college basketball picks and predictions. It’s the final day of the regular season while mid-major conference tournaments are in full swing. Let’s find some winners as we dive into three intriguing matchups.
The Atlantic Sun championship game between Lipscomb and North Alabama headlines our college basketball picks today. Plus, we dish out predictions for Houston Christian vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Southland Conference tournament and then an American Athletic Conference matchup featuring North Texas vs. Temple.
Note that all betting lines are accurate as of this writing, but shop around for the best odds. Enjoy these college basketball picks and predictions for Sunday, March 9’s game North Texas at Temple.
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Sunday's Best College Basketball Bets: North Texas at Temple
(Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook)
North Texas at Temple
On this final day of the regular season in the American Athletic Conference, let's turn our attention to Temple hosting North Texas. The Mean Green are clearly the better team in this matchup and should win. Still, the home underdog Owls are live to make this interesting.
Memphis wrapped up its AAC outright regular season title with a win on Friday. That means North Texas has virtually nothing to play in this last game ahead of the conference tournament. The Mean Green are locked into the No. 2 or 3 seed, depending on UAB's result today.
Temple, meanwhile, currently sits eighth in the league standings but can move up to sixth or seventh if things break right today. That would mean avoiding juggernaut Memphis in a potential quarterfinal matchup of the AAC tourney. The Owls would have to win today, of course, for any of that to come to fruition.
Again, North Texas is better than Temple in a lot of ways. Yet, the Owls have the offensive upside to keep things close at home. They're averaging 79.4 PPG this season (third in AAC) while shooting a league-best 39.2% from three-point range against conference opponents. Temple also gets to the free-throw line at the highest rate in the AAC and boasts the league's third-best offensive efficiency in conference play, per KenPom.
The Owls also play at a quick tempo overall. This will be a literal change of pace for North Texas, which ranks 362nd nationally in tempo. Temple can speed things up enough to catch the Mean Green off guard. If North Texas does slow things down, though, that naturally favors an underdog with fewer possessions to work with.
The Temple offense could get an added boost today with Jamal Mashburn Jr. possibly returning to the lineup. He's day-to-day after missing the last month of games but may be back for Senior Day. Either way, the Owls have still been scoring plenty without him.
If Temple can get hot from three and draw enough fouls, an upset might be brewing in Philadelphia this afternoon. For what it's worth, the Owls are 3-0 ATS as a home underdog this season. They also covered as road dogs at North Texas earlier this year.
Pick: Temple +5.5 (-110)