North Texas vs Florida International 12/31/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Florida International Panthers and the North Texas Mean Green meet Saturday in college basketball action from UNT Coliseum. Florida International is fresh off a Thursday game versus Florida College. In that one the Panthers put up a five-point victory. As for North Texas, they’re coming off a Thursday matchup versus Florida Atlantic. The Mean Green ended up losing that one by four. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Florida International went 4-2 over their first six games this year, losing to only NC State and Bryant. The Panthers would then hit a four-game losing streak to Eastern Michigan, FGCU, Howard and FAU before a win over Incarnate Word. 

Matched up against Florida College on Thursday, Florida International went into the break up 31-27. The Panthers had to scramble a bit in the second half but still won 69-64. Petar Krivokapic and Dashon Gittens each scored a team-high 15 points. 

Over on the North Texas side, they went 5-1 to kick off the season with a lone loss to Saint Mary’s. The Mean Green hit another 5-1 run after that, beating Omaha, TX-Arlington, Grand Canyon, UMass and UTSA. 

In the Florida Atlantic matchup on Thursday, North Texas scored just 22 points in the first half. The Mean Green kept the pace in the second half but ended up falling 50-46. Tylor Perry was the leading scorer on 19 points with two rebounds. 

PICK: I’ll probably stay with FIU, but I’m not going near it. The Panthers have a couple of fairly close wins over their last two games; a promising sign after a four-game losing streak with 65 or fewer points in three of those. FIU is going to have to press hard on offense here, however. North Texas doesn’t score much, but they don’t give up many points either. The Green have surrendered 63 or fewer points in every outing so far. If FIU can get it going on the scoreboard (relatively speaking) I think they can get in there.