Should be a fun one in Salt Lake City with the Frogs visiting the Utes. Should be even more fun for Pierre, who has thrived this season in the more uptempo matchups TCU has had. On Wednesday against BYU he played just 22 mins with 3 FGA (2 3PTA) due to foul trouble. What a better time to bounce back (and stay in the game) than against Utah. Their 3PT defense ranks as the 3rd-worst in the Big 12, only behind West Virginia and Arizona St.

The Utes particularly struggle to defend threes above the break and off the dribble, both of which perfectly match Pierre’s shot profile. This game has potential to be the fastest game TCU will have in Big 12 play, and if that materializes then Pierre should have a solid role from the perimeter in this one.

After a nonconference slate that saw Kugel clear this number only twice, he has now cleared it in the last 2 of UCF’s 4 games in Big 12 play. Now they get to go up against Arizona, who has Kharchenkov, Krivas, Peat, and Awaka off the bench to either put a body on someone or crash the boards themselves. Brayden Burries has also been a solid rebounder as of late, averaging 7.8 RPG in Big 12 play. Important as he will likely be matched up with Kugel at the 2.

Add on to the fact that UCF’s tandem of bigs have not produced a great paint defense, so Arizona will likely look to exploit that early and often. Meaning less rebound chances on long threes, a large chunk of Kugel’s recent rebound profile. Should be tough for him to reach this number without some wild bounces.

Atwell is on this team to shoot threes and that’s about it, illustrated by his 11.5 points projection while also opening at 3.5 3PM. The 3PM is no longer available but I’m fine fading the points. Atwell has 64 made FGs on the season and just 7 of those are from inside the arc, so hopefully that stays true today. But on to the matchup, BYU’s perimeter defense has been fantastic, ranking just inside of top 40 in the nation. And they’ve been especially solid against designated spot-up guys similar to Atwell.

This should be a game where the focus for the Red Raiders offense is the two-man game between Christian Anderson and JT Toppin and not as much of the outside shooting volume. This will be a sweat since Texas Tech really has no bench at this point and the starters essentially play the whole game, but a sweat I think is worthwhile. Let C4 and Toppin feast.