College basketball picks: Houston-Cincinnati prediction, odds, spread for January 8

The No. 2 Houston Cougars will hit the road on Sunday for an AAC showdown against the Cincinnati Bearcats at 3 p.m. ET. The game will take place at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati and will air on ESPN.

Let's take a look at the odds and lines on DraftKings Sportsbook and make some picks.

Houston vs. Cincinnati odds

Spread: Houston -9.5
Over/Under: 135
Moneyline: Houston -500, Cincinnati +400

Houston (15-1, 3-0 AAC) barely broke a sweat when pummeling SMU in an 87-53 beatdown on Thursday. The Cougars outscored the Mustangs 32-6 in the first 10 minutes of action and kept things rolling on their way to another dominant win. Jarace Walker came away with a double-double effort, dropping 23 points and 10 rebounds in the win.

Cincinnati (11-5, 2-1 AAC) rebounded from a 70-61 loss to Temple last Sunday by beating Wichita State 70-61 on Thursday. Both teams shot below 40% from two throughout the game but the Bearcats' 13 threes proved to be the difference. Jeremiah Davenport came off the bench to drop 22 points in the win.

The Pick: Houston -9.5

These are two excellent teams against the spread with Cincinnati entering this game at 11-4 and Houston sitting at 11-5. The Cougars are running roughshod over most of their opponents and this may be a part of the schedule when Kelvin Sampson's crew tries to get some style points going in the eyes of the committee by running up large margins. Give me Houston to cover on the road.

  
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