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The FAU Owls take on the UTSA Roadrunners. Check out our college basketball odds series for our FAU UTSA prediction and pick. Find how to watch FAU UTSA.
The Florida Atlantic Owls made the Final Four last year, as you know. They entered this season as a marked team, an opponent everyone would try especially hard to defeat. This was going to be a challenge for the Owls, but no one could have known just how difficult the challenge would be.
FAU has had a good season up to this point. The Owls beat Arizona, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Butler, and Saint Bonaventure. They have scored some impressive wins and are going to make the NCAA Tournament, which is an important and impressive achievement for a school which — until last year — was a relative non-factor in men's college basketball. Remember: Even though FAU made the Final Four last season, it was a No. 9 seed. It's not as though FAU was likely to get a top-three seed for this season's tournament. The main objective was to get back into March Madness and earn another chance to make a run. The Owls will do that. To that extent, they have had a good year. Yet, they haven't been great, and this is part of the mystery of FAU.
A team good enough to beat Arizona has been bad enough to lose to Florida Gulf Coast, Bryant, and Charlotte. FAU has also fallen behind teams such as East Carolina and Wichita State by at least eight to 10 points if not more. FAU has frequently fallen behind opponents by large numbers of points before rallying late to win close games. This team's record could easily be three or four games worse if it hadn't scrambled to rescue several games in which it flopped in the first half.
As the season moves into late January, will FAU be able to stabilize such that it won't keep playing down to the level of its competition? Everyone wants to see if the Owls can reach a higher level of sustained performance.
Here are the FAU-UTSA College Basketball odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
College Basketball Odds: FAU-UTSA Odds
FAU Owls: -16.5 (-102)
UTSA Roadrunners: +16.5 (-120)
Over: 160.5 (-115)
Under: 160.5 (-105)
How To Watch FAU vs UTSA
Time: 3:00 pm ET / 12:00 pm PT
Article Continues Below
TV: ESPN Plus
Stream: fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
Why FAU Could Cover the Spread
The discussion surrounding this game is an FAU-centric discussion. It's really not about the opponent; it's whether FAU focuses fully on the task at hand and plays great basketball. FAU is elite when it decides to lock in on defense and perform with clarity and force. FAU is mediocre and wobbly when it is distracted and doesn't start a game with the energy of a champion. FAU keeps running into these first-half problems marked by a lack of focus, combined with opponents' superb intensity and drive. At some point, FAU will get sick and tired of starting games slowly and will put it to a bad team in the first half, grabbing a 20-point lead at halftime and eventually winning by 30. UTSA is not strong enough to withstand Florida Atlantic if the Owls play well for 40 minutes.
Why UTSA Could Cover the Spread
This is not complicated. FAU has fallen behind a lot of mediocre teams in the first half and struggles to put together a 40-minute game. The spread is large, so UTSA probably covers if FAU has another terrible first half.
Final FAU-UTSA Prediction & Pick
The FAU Owls are such an unreliable team in terms of winning spread-based bets. You should just stay away from this contest.
Final FAU-UTSA Prediction & Pick: FAU -16.5
