#761/762 ASA PLAY ON Under 126 Points – SMU vs North Texas, Thursday at 7 PM ET - Defense should rule the day here with 2 high level stop units facing off. Both are ranked in the top 10 nationally in FG% allowed each giving up around 37%. They also rank 3rd nationally (UNT) and 8th nationally (SMU) in PPG allowed giving up 58 and 62 PPG respectively. On top of that, we won’t see many possessions here as North Texas is one of the slowest paced teams in the country averaging only 62 possessions per game (360th). SMU is middle of the pack in that category but we have no doubt the Mean Green will make sure they get their preferred tempo at home in this one. The slower paced team usually gets the tempo they want, especially at home. If we look at season long offensive & defensive tempo stats, these 2 teams rank outside the top 300 (slow paced) in 3 of those 4 categories (SMU defensive pace, UNT defensive pace, & UNT offensive pace). The match ups favor the defenses as well. The Mean Green like to shoot 3’s with 34% of their points coming from deep (77th most nationally). However, SMU is the best 3 point defensive team in the country allowing opponents to hit only 26% from beyond the arc on the season. SMU likes to score inside the arc (top 100 in percentage of points from 2 point land) but UNT ranks 15th nationally at 2 point defense allowing opponents to hit only 43% inside the 3 point line. Neither team gets to the FT line very often (250th and 305th in FT attempts per game) and we just don’t anticipate many scoring opportunities in this one. Under is the call.