The 2023 NIT Tournament is set to culminate on Thursday night with an all-Conference USA battle. For the fourth time this season, the UAB Blazers and the North Texas Mean Green will go head-to-head. This time, a postseason tournament championship hangs in the balance. Both teams were victorious in a pair of thrilling semifinal games on Tuesday night to set up this rematch in Las Vegas. The UAB vs North Texas odds and college basketball betting picks are giving a slight edge to the Blazers in advance of this matchup.
The following game preview provides the college basketball betting odds, trends and KenPom ratings before sharing our official UAB vs North Texas prediction for the NIT Tournament Final.
UAB vs North Texas Prediction | College Basketball Betting Picks
NIT Tournament Final
UAB Blazers (29-9) vs. North Texas Mean Green (30-7)
Time: 9:30 p.m. EST
Venue: Orleans Arena — Las Vegas, NV
Coverage: ESPN2
UAB Blazers Preview
It took overtime to do so, but UAB was ultimately able to prevail over Utah Valley in a wild NIT Tournament semifinal game on Tuesday night. This victory followed a hard-fought win in the Quarterfinal Round over Vanderbilt. After cruising through the first two rounds of the tournament, the Blazers have encountered stiffer competition in each of their last two games. Fortunately, Andy Kennedy’s team is littered with both talent and experience thanks to the presence of several major conference transfers.
North Texas Mean Green Preview
North Texas found itself down 12 at halftime in Tuesday’s semifinal game against Wisconsin. Despite being at a major disadvantage as far as frontcourt depth, the Mean Green were able to mount an incredible comeback to squeak out a two-point victory. Defense proved to be the key, as UNT remarkably held the Badgers scoreless for the final nine minutes of the game! Grant McCasland’s team now has 30 wins on the year and a pair of NIT Tournament victories over Power 6 opponents.
UAB vs North Texas College Basketball Betting Picks and Odds
College basketball betting odds for UAB vs North Texas can be found at BetUS Sportsbook.
Moneyline: UAB: (-145) | UNT: (+125)
Point Spread: UAB: -2.5 (-110) | UNT: +2.5 (-110)
Total: 128.5 — Over: (-110) | Under: (-110)
College Basketball KenPom Ratings
The following table displays the KenPom adjusted efficiency ratings for the two teams involved in Thursday night’s NIT Tournament Final. In addition to overall efficiency margin, offensive, defensive and tempo ratings are included.
| Team | Overall AdjEM (Rk) | AdjO (Rk) | AdjD (Rk) | AdjT (Rk) |
| UAB | +14.96 (45) | 112.6 (45) | 97.6 (52) | 70.6 (31) |
| North Texas | +16.59 (33) | 110.7 (75) | 94.1 (18) | 59.2 (363) |
UAB vs North Texas College Basketball Betting Trends
- Blazers are 4-0 ATS in their last four games following an ATS loss.
- The UNDER is 4-1 in the Blazers’ last five games overall.
- Nine of the Blazers’ last 11 neutral site games have gone OVER the total.
- Mean Green are 11-2 ATS in their last 13 games following a straight up win.
- The OVER is 8-2 in the Mean Green’s last ten games against teams with a winning percentage above .600.
- Betting underdogs are 11-3 ATS in the last 14 UAB vs North Texas head-to-head meetings.
- Four of the last six head-to-head meetings between the Blazers and Mean Green have gone OVER the total.
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UAB vs North Texas Prediction | College Basketball Betting Picks
As previously mentioned, this will be the fourth time that these two teams have faced off this season. North Texas was able to capture both regular-season meetings, with the second game being decided in overtime. The third matchup came on a neutral floor in the Conference USA Tournament. UAB closed as a two-point college basketball betting favorite and would ultimately go on to win the game by seven.
When it comes to the UAB vs North Texas odds for Thursday’s NIT Tournament Final, the market has pretty much mirrored the trends we saw prior to the March 10th encounter. Las Vegas oddsmakers opened the Blazers as a one-point favorite, essentially declaring the game a toss-up. The spread has since been bet up to the current consensus of UAB -2.5.
Looking at the matchup itself, North Texas’ run to the NIT Tournament Championship Game is made even more impressive by the fact that they have done so without leading rebounder, Abou Ousmane. The junior big man has missed all of the Mean Green’s postseason games due to personal reasons. As he was absent for Tuesday’s semifinal game, it appears highly unlikely that he will be back for Thursday’s contest.
In the absence of Ousmane, UNT has essentially had to rely on a seven-man rotation. While the Mean Green does play at the slowest average pace of any team in the country, fatigue could impact their ability to lock down defensively against the prolific UAB offense. Leading scorer Jordan Walker (22.3 ppg) wasn’t even at his best in Tuesday’s semifinal. Despite this, the Blazers still pulled out the win thanks to a 30-point effort from Ty Brewer and clutch overtime buckets from Eric Gaines.
The other issue for North Texas is the lack of shot creators aside from Tylor Perry and Kai Huntsberry. Rubin Jones stepped up huge in the second half against Wisconsin, but will he be able to do it again? In addition, it seems logical to expect that the UAB frontcourt tandem of Trey Jemison and KJ Buffen will have a much better showing than it did on Tuesday. This figures to be bad news for the shorthanded Mean Green.
UAB COVERS will be our official college basketball betting UAB vs North Texas prediction for the NIT Tournament Championship Game.
For what it’s worth, the ESPN Matchup Predictor gives North Texas a 50.7% chance to win this game outright.
Bet: UAB -2.5 (-110 at BetUS Sportsbook)
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