Arizona Wildcats vs Houston Cougars Prediction: Can the Cougars' Defense Stop the Wildcats?
Arizona Wildcats vs Houston Cougars Prediction: Can the Cougars' Defense Stop the Wildcats?
This is usually the best round of the tournament aka Sweet 16. These teams are all evenly matched as you can see tonight with a few pick games and we will look at one of those. Arizona was one of the consensus picks to win it all against the team no one wanted to play in Houston and their great defense. Arizona barely escaped against TCU last round and Houston dismantled another Big 10 team with Memphis' performance against the Zags we see that these Conference USA teams are legit and tonight we find out just how legit the class of the conference is.
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Arizona Wildcats vs Houston Cougars Prediction
Who will win is the question but we will focus on the total as Houston is one of the best defensive teams in the country and are No. 1 at giving up only 37% field goal shooting this year and that will truly be challenged by the No. 3 offense of Arizona and No. 5 field goal percentage. This team can score and has the size to dominate down low and it's going to take every ounce of that defense that gave up less than 59 points a game to stop this monsoon tonight.
Houston doesn't even play their biggest man at center, they play 6'8 Kiyron Powell instead. This team plays like a team that has at least five guys scoring in double-digits. They will have to play like that tonight and we know Coach Sampson came up with a great game plan (after he put his shirt back on) to shut down Illinois' offense. Let's not forget Houston just held a top offense and a monster down low to 53 points which they did to Memphis to win the conference the week before. They have held 9 of the last 10 opponents under 70 and 6 of the last 10 to under 61 points including a 46 point defensive blowout performance over Temple. This team has to play the best defense they have all year if they want to shut down this powerhouse and advance to the Final Four since the winner of the game will clearly be the favorite in the south region.
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I don't think there has ever been a team with this much size that can actually play the same way offensively and defensively on one team like Arizona has this year. There are four guys over 6'10 and their best player is a 6'6 guard who plays like a Houston Cougar with all the offense and defense he brings. TCU did what you have to do to beat Arizona. They killed them on the offensive glass and got more shots, rebounds, and free throws, it helped that Arizona couldn't hit a 3 pointer (19% for a team that usually shoots 35% ). That is what the Cougars will have to do tonight.
We talk about Houston's defense being one of the best but Arizona has a pretty good defense themselves but they played in the PAC 12 offense generated league and they scored so much they didn't have to play defense. We feel Houston will slow this game down and there will be hands in everyone's faces and a lot harder to score for Arizona just like TCU did if you remember the game was 150 going into overtime so not much higher than the total today and Houston plays much better defense then TCU. We made this total 140-142 so we feel we are getting a few extra buckets from our line and we will stick with that as we will take a game that only gets to 140.
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Defense is always the key to a win so let's see Houston play their No. 1 defense and let's see if the length of Arizona makes it difficult for Houston to score. Let's not forget Houston was 334th in free throw shooting (66%) and bad free throw shooting (they have already shot 53 and 71% in the tournament) has cost teams in the tournament, especially this year. Under 146.5 is the current line in every book including FanDuel and DraftKings so let's take it and see if our numbers deliver tonight. Defense is the way to go with Cougars and Wildcats. Let's build a brick house with these animals tonight.
Arizona Wildcats vs Houston Cougars Pick
Pick: Houston under 147 (-120) (Bet $120 to Win $100)