Houston vs Temple Prediction, College Basketball Game Preview

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

By Pete Fiutak | January 23, 2021 1:26 am CT

Houston Cougars vs Temple Owls prediction and college basketball game preview.

Houston vs Temple Broadcast

Date: Saturday, January 23
Game Time: 12:00 ET
Venue: Liacouras Center, Philadelphia, PA
Network: CBS

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Temple (3-3) vs Houston (12-1) Game Preview

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Why Temple Will Win

The late fill-in for Cincinnati is great on the boards. It has to be considering the shooting issues.

Houston likes to shoot from three and shoot from three some more, jacking up more three than anyone in the American Athletic Conference. It then does a great job of controlling the boards when the offense isn’t quite on.

It’s no coincidence that the lone loss for the Cougars came on their worst three-point shooting day of the season – hitting 4-of-21 in the 65-64 loss to Tulsa – and Temple has been decent at times defending from beyond the arc. Most importantly, if it can own the boards – it averages over 39 per game – it can hang around. However …

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Why Houston Will Win

Houston is a rebounding powerhouse, and Temple can’t hit from three.

This is a bad-shooting Owl team, it doesn’t have a great inside presence, and there aren’t enough shots from the outside to matter. It can’t move the ball around well enough, there isn’t enough pressure being delivered, and there aren’t enough steals.

The Cougars shoot a whole lot from the outside, and they’re amazing at cleaning up their messes by leading the nation in offensive rebounds averaging over 16 per game.

What’s Going To Happen

Houston will speed things up early on and take Temple out of its style. It’ll be close throughout the first half but the Owl twos will be offset by the Cougar threes as this starts to get out of hand in the second half.

Houston will win the rebounding margin by at least six, and it’ll shoot when Temple can’t.