It's time to continue our College Basketball odds series with a West Virginia-Cincinnati prediction and pick. Find out how to watch West Virginia-Cincinnati.
The West Virginia Mountaineers are building a successful season and a bright future under coach Darian DeVries. The new boss came to Morgantown from Drake and has been fabulous in Year 1 on the job. Despite lacking Tucker DeVries for a large portion of this season due to injury, Darian DeVries has found ways to win games in the Big 12 (and in nonconference play earlier in the season). West Virginia looks like an NCAA Tournament team. Getting to the Big Dance in his first season would rate as a tremendous accomplishment for DeVries, who is quickly building confidence among West Virginia fans that he will be able to create a sustainable winner at the school. DeVries is legitimately in the hunt for National Coach of the Year honors. He certainly should be on the short list as far as that particular conversation is concerned.
If West Virginia is building something exciting and new which creates optimism for the future, the same cannot be said of coach Wes Miller and his Cincinnati Bearcats.
Cincinnati has endured a brutal season, falling well below .500 in the Big 12 Conference and failing to sustain any sort of positive momentum in the conference season. Cincinnati did some good work in nonconference play with wins over in-state foes Xavier and Dayton, but the Bearcats have fallen flat in the Big 12. Miller has to try to salvage what he can from this season, but his really big task will be to hit the transfer portal in the coming offseason and find bonafide scorers who can significantly raise the floor for this offense.
West Virginia: +5.5 (-108)
Moneyline: +198
Cincinnati: -5.5 (-112)
Moneyline: -245
Over: 127.5 (-110)
Under: 127.5 (-110)
Time: 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT
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TV: ESPN Plus
West Virginia comes across as a team which will be hard for Cincinnati to play against. The Mountaineers play the rugged, intense defense which will make life very difficult for a struggling Cincinnati offense. If UC wanted an opponent to get healthy against, West Virginia is not that kind of opponent.
West Virginia is a good team, but we have seen the Mountaineers’ offense get shut down the past few games. WVU also lost a relatively recent game to Arizona State at home. This team is not playing good basketball at the moment, in spite of its overall accomplishments over the course of the full season. Cincinnati’s defense can smother WVU’s offense and win the game.
We also have to mention the injury bug which has hit West Virginia really hard this season. Tucker DeVries is still out. Guard Jayden Stone is still out. This team has been playing shorthanded, and if we are going to be honest about why WVU has lost a few games recently against less-than-great opposition (Kansas State and Arizona State), the lack of healthy and available bodies has been a core reason. Healthy, WVU is better than Cincy, but not healthy, this is why Cincinnati is favored in this game, and it all makes total sense under the circumstances.
WVU has an injured team, but Cincinnati has a mediocre team. WVU will keep this game close enough to cover. Take West Virginia here, getting this many points. Cincinnati should not be favored by 5.5 points over anyone in the Big 12 right now.
