With the 16th-ranked Baylor Bears looking to secure as high a seed as possible in the annual NCAA March Madness tournament and the TCU Horned Frogs playing miserable basketball right now, there’s no doubt that the Bears will win this Big 12 battle, making the only ‘real’ question surrounding this contest whether or not Baylor will cover the NCAAB Hoops Odds spread as a likely double-digit road favorite. Let’s find out now.
How To Bet The Baylor Bears vs. TCU Horned Frogs NCAAB Odds & TV Info
When: Saturday, February 27, 8:00 PM ET
Where: Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena, Fort Worth, Texas
TV: ESPNU
NCAAB Odds: Baylor -9
Why Bet The Baylor Bears
The Bears (20-8 SU, 8-13 ATS) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped in their narrow 66-60 loss against No. 2 Kansas on Tuesday night while failing to cover the spread as a 2.5-point road dog. Al Freeman scored a team-high 17 points for the Bears including four 3-pointers while Taurean Prince added 12 points in the loss.
“I was proud of how we competed and played for about 36 minutes, and then I wish we could do that last 4 minutes over again,” Bears coach Scott Drew said. “I don’t think we executed as well as we’d like. We didn’t rebound as well as we’d like down the stretch. But I think we’ve seen marked improvement from the first time we played them.”
While Baylor has lost four of their last seven games, the Bears have gone 4-1-1 ATS in their last six games following a straight up loss and an identical 4-1-1 ATS in their last six road games.
Why Bet The TCU Horned Frogs
TCU (11-17 SU, 10-12 ATS) has lost four straight and six of its last seven games overall including its humbling 83-79 loss against red-hot Texas Tech as 11.5-point road dogs on Tuesday. Chauncey Collins scored a game-high 29 points for the Horned Frogs while Brandon Parrish added 19 points in the narrow defeat.
“We played really, really well,” TCU coach Trent Johnson said. “Texas Tech is a very good basketball team. They have a lot of confidence in close games. We had a couple of bad possessions down the stretch, but I can’t fault their effort, I can’t fault their execution. That’s just the way it goes sometimes, you don’t get breaks.”
The bad news for TCU fans and betting backers coming into this contest is the fact that the Horned Frogs are just 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games against their Big 12 conference rivals and just 2-7 ATS in their last 9 games versus a team with a winning straight up record.
Expert Pick & Final Score Prediction
Baylor averages exactly 10.0 points per game more than TCU while also allowing .6 fewer points per game defensively. More importantly, the Bears are desperate to get back in the win column and improve their chances of earning a favorable seed come March Madness tourney time.
The Bears are near-perfect 6-1 ATS in the last seven meetings while the favorite in this Big 12 rivalry has gone 5-2 ATS in the last seven meetings.
My final score prediction: Baylor 79 TCU 70
