This is an 8* on HOUSTON

Houston comes into this all-Texas matchup way undervalued as we had the spread several points higher. Some have already caught onto this as the Cougars have been bet up a bit this morning. But it's still not enough for UTEP to finish in the money Thursday. UTEP may be 8-1 straight up, but they haven't really played anybody (that's good) and they've left El Paso just one time. That one time just so happened to result in the Miners only defeat, which came at the hands of New Mexico State. It's a big step up in class tonight facing Houston, who is in an angry mood after losing to Oklahoma State on Sunday. The Cougars were seven-point favorites, but they went down 61-55 on a poor shooting night (31.1 FG%). Prior to that, their only two losses were to Oregon (top 10 team) and by 1 to BYU. We view this team as being a bit of a "sleeping giant" right now and UTEP is coming to town at the wrong time. At home, Houston is holding opponents to a 35.0 field goal percentage. Play on HOUSTON

AAA