The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (16-14) and East Carolina Pirates (14-17) meet Thursday afternoon in a 2nd-round game of the American Athletic Conference Tournament. The opening tip-off at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth will be at 12:30 p.m. ET (ESPNU). Below, we analyze BetMGM Sportsbook’s lines around the Tulsa vs. East Carolina odds, and make our expert college basketball picks, predictions and best bets.
Tulsa went 7-11 across 18 AAC contests to tie for 8th place in the 14-team circuit. Tulsa closed out its regular season with a 76-70 win on Saturday over the USF Bulls as 5 1/2-point underdogs.
East Carolina also went 7-11 in league play. The Pirates closed out their regular season Saturday with a 82-72 loss as a 1 1/2-point favorite against Charlotte. Since Feb. 24, ECU is 0-5 straight up and 1-4 ATS.
Ninth-seeded Tulsa and No. 8 East Carolina met once in the regular season. ECU defeated UT 62-57 (a push on an ECU -5.5) on Jan. 7. The winner of their Thursday game will advance to face No. 1 South Florida on Friday.