The West Virginia University’s men’s basketball team has yet to lose a game at the WVU Coliseum this season. The No. 4 Texas Longhorns may be the team to end that streak on Saturday, especially if they can keep it as close as the latest West Virginia basketball betting odds expect.
The Mountaineers are a 1.5-favorite to maintain their unblemished home record at 1 p.m. EST on ESPN. The trends say that in order for WVU to do so, they’ll have to maximize their tendency to start games strong.
Full odds for upcoming college games at WV sportsbooks online:
West Virginia basketball betting odds
West Virginia has won the first half of 16 of its last 20 home games, going back to the 2019-20 season. That includes last January’s contest against Texas, which it ended up winning by 38 points. However, this is a different Longhorns team.
Texas has won each game that it has led at halftime, but that win rate drops to just half when it trails at the break. The disparity between leading and trailing at the half isn’t as great for WVU, although the Mountaineers’ win rate actually improves when they’ve trailed to start the second half.
In terms of Texas games so far this year, it comes into this one at just 139.1 points. So far this season, the average point total for games at the WVU Coliseum is 132.3 points, so the total of 141.5 sits over both the average total for games involving the Longhorns and the average total at the venue. However, the over is 8-4 in Mountaineer games, and the average total for games that West Virginia has played in is 144.3.
All the game statistics support a tight contest as well. There’s very little separation between these two teams in terms of their production on the court so far this season.
Breaking down the Longhorns, Mountaineers by the numbers
Texas comes in on a five-game winning streak. Their narrowest win during that stretch came by just three points in a home game against Oklahoma State on Dec. 20. West Virginia just defeated that same team by the same margin, but on the road, on Jan. 4.
Offensively, the Longhorns are on par with WVU, averaging 76 points per game against the Mountaineers’ 75.3. There’s a little more separation between the teams in terms of points allowed. The Longhorns give up six fewer points per game on average than West Virginia.
Texas is shooting just a hair better from the field, at 44.8%. However, these two teams’ rebound totals, assists totals and turnovers forced per game are nearly identical. This game may come down to which point guard can get the upper hand in that individual matchup.
Texas’ Matt Coleman III and WVU’s Miles McBride both lead their respective teams not only in assists per game but scoring average as well. In what should be a tight game, a few mistakes by one of those two players could easily swing bets on the spread.
