Utah vs Sam Houston State 11/17/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Sam Houston State Bearkats and the Utah Utes meet in college basketball action from the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Thursday night.

The Sam Houston State Bearkats come into this one off of an 84-46 win over subdivision Le Tourneau last time out. Tristan Ikpe and Donte Powers each had a team-high 11 points and 7 rebounds with Grant logging 5 assists as well in the win. Javion May added 8 rebounds while Damon Nicholas Jr. added 10 points to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Sam Houston State in the win.Kian Scroggins also added 9 rebounds as well to lead the Bearkats on the glass in the win.

The Utah Utes will look to build on their 70-58 win over Idaho State in their last game. Brendan Carlson led the way with 26 points as Utah’s lone double-digit scorer in the win, also pulling down 9 rebounds to lead the Utes on the glass and missing one rebound shy of the double-double. Gabe Madsen also added 8 rebounds while Rollie Worster dished out a team-high 3 assists in the winning effort.

Sam Houston State is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games following a win by 20 or more points and 6-1 ATS in their last 7 Thursday games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. Utah is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games following an ATS loss and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games overall while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600.

I get the reasoning behind taking Sam Houston here as the Bearkats are usually good to thrive in an underdog role and they already beat Oklahoma this season. However, Oklahoma’s not a very good team if we’re being honest and their last two wins have come against subdivision opponents. On the other side, Utah has played the slightly tougher schedule and has dismantled lesser opponents up to this point. Not rushing to the window to bet this one, but I lean Utah laying the points.