SIU Edwardsville Cougars vs Houston Cougars Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 03/20/25

The Houston Cougars will begin their bid for a Final Four run if not even for the National Championship when they face the SIU Edwardsville Cougars in round 1 of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Wichita. It’s not often that you get a spread as high as 28.5 points when the game total is set 125.5 points, but that is the case for this particular showdown. If it turns out to be as low scoring as expected, the Midwest Region’s #1 seed simply may not score enough to cover such a huge number. As a result, my SIUE vs Houston pick is the #16 seed to cover +28.5 points.

Houston is obviously a great team, but it is #357 out of 364 Division I teams in pace of play at 65.6 possessions per game. SIUE is #209 at 69.7. The underdogs will surely be content to play just as slow as their opponent on Thursday, as the shorter the game the better chance a much weaker side has of keeping the score somewhat close. In other words, this could be one of the slowest paces of the entire first round. Houston does not have anyone averaging more than 15.2 ppg (L.J. Cryer), so it’s not like the Big 12 champions are going to run SIUE completely out of the gym right from the start. SIUE kept it within 19 points at then-#17 Indiana very early in the season, which is at least a sort-of encouraging result. It’s hard to have a ton of confidence on any kind of play with a spread this big, but give me SIUE plus the points.

SIUE vs Houston prediction: SIUE +28.5 (-105) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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