The No.7-seeded UAB Blazers take on the No.2-seeded BYU Cougars in the first round of the NIT tournament at Marriott Center. Action gets underway at 10:00 pm ET on Wednesday, Mar. 16 and can be seen on ESU and ES3.
The Cougars were beaten by Gonzaga 88-84 in the 3 of the West Coast tournament. Nick Emery was the team’s high scorer, finishing with 27. The Blazers, meanwhile, are coming off an 88-77 loss to Western Kentucky in the 3 of the Conference USA tournament. Robert Brown led the game in scoring with 23 points.
From an eFG% perspective, this will be a battle of strength versus strength when the Blazers have the ball. Their sharp-shooting offense ranks 29th in the nation in that metric at 54.2%, while BYU is 33rd-best in the nation in eFG% defense (47.5%).
The Cougars enter the game with records of 23-10 Straight Up (SU) and 14-13-4 Against The Spread (ATS). They have been worse ATS (3-7) than their SU record (8-2) over their last 10 games would indicate. Few teams in the nation have a higher assist-to-turnover ratio than BYU, which ranks 29th at 1.42.
As for their opponent, UAB has a SU record of 26-5 and an ATS record of 14-13. The Blazers rarely make costly errors handling the ball. They have the 16th-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the country at 1.48.
This game will be the first meeting for BYU and UAB in recent seasons.
Predictions: SU Winner – BYU, ATS Winner – BYU
Notes
“BYU is 1-3-1 ATS in its last 5 games at home”.
“BYU is 16-2 SU in its last 18 games at home”.
“The total has gone UNDER in 5 of BYU’s last 6 games at home”.
“BYU is 1-3-2 ATS in its last 6 games “.
“The total has gone UNDER in 4 of BYU’s last 6 games “.
The UAB Blazers rank 40th for their offensive rating of 113.2. The BYU Cougars have a defensive rating of 98.5 (ranked 28th).
UAB has an average field goal percentage of 47.9%, ranked 23rd in the country. BYU is a winning 4-2 when opponents have a similar or higher field goal percentage.
The BYU Cougars rank lower for their field goal percentage (64th) than they do for their effective field goal percentage (50th), but the UAB Blazers have a better FG% ranking (23rd) than eFG% ranking (29th).
Ranked Third in the country, the UAB Blazers average 18.5 assists per game. The BYU Cougars make 16.5 assists (ranked 24th).
UAB, the second-ranked team in blocked shots, records an average of 6.2 blocks per game. BYU ranks 78th with 4.2.
BYU ranks 80th in offensive rebounding. When it comes to defensive rebounds, UAB ranks 44th.
On average, BYU makes 6.6 steals per game. UAB has a superb 16-3 record when it gives up at least 6 steals.
