Houston at East Carolina 2/3/21 - College Basketball Picks & Predictions

The Houston Cougars travel on the road to Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum to take on the East Carolina Pirates. Houston has won 8 straight since an early slip up against Tulsa and is coming off a dominating 70-48 win over SMU to improve to 15-1 (10-1 conference). ECU has lost five in a row and been terrible in AAC play, coming off a 77-68 loss at home to Tulsa and dropping to 7-6 (1-6 conference). 

Houston is among the best defensive teams in the country but the offense has done its part in the solid start to the season. The Cougars are 128th in scoring offense averaging 74.1 points per game, they’ve pushed the tempo and are shooting 41.5% from the field, 283rd in the country in field-goal shooting.

The two-headed backcourt of Quentin Grimes and Marcus Sasser has led the way with Grimes leading the team in scoring averaging 16.8 points on 37.9% shooting. Grimes is also a great rebounder pulling down 6.7 per game, the second-most on the team. Sasser is a true scoring guard averaging 15.6 points and knocking down 39% of his nearly 8.5 attempts from three-point land per game.

East Carolina has been one of the worst offenses in the AAC this season and comes in averaging 67.8 points per game ranking 265th in the country in scoring offense. The Pirates are shooting just 42% from the field and 31.9% from three, both ranking well outside the top-200 in college basketball. And it’s been even worse in conference play.

The one-dimensional scoring attack could be to blame with junior forward Jayden Gardner doing a majority of the scoring for the Pirates this season. Gardner is by far the team-leader in scoring averaging 17.1 points on 48.3% shooting and pulling down 8.1 rebounds per game. Junior point guard Tremont Robinson-White is the distributor dishing out 3.9 assists and adding 8.9 points per game.

Houston is the number-one scoring defense in college basketball this season allowing just 56 points per game whilst holding teams to 36.2% from the field (1st in country) and 24.8% from beyond the arc (2nd in country). The Cougars are 2nd in KenPom adjusted defense. East Carolina comes in allowing 66.4 points per game ranking 80th in the country in scoring defense, the Pirates are holding opponents to 42% from the field.