McNeese and North Texas meet in a non-conference men's college basketball game on Thursday, with tipoff set for 5 p.m. ET at The Super Pit in Denton, Texas. Both programs come in unbeaten after comfortable season-opening victories on Monday.
The Cowboys rolled past UAB 99-78 in their opener, while the Mean Green cruised to a 122-50 rout of Southwestern Christian on their home floor.
McNeese is coming off a strong campaign in which it went 28-6 overall and 19-3 in Southland Conference play. The Cowboys have also traveled well, posting a 10-5 record on the road since the beginning of last season. North Texas finished 19-14 overall and 9-9 in the American Conference a year ago, and the Mean Green have gone 13-5 at home dating back to last November.
The latest odds list McNeese as a 2.5-point favorite, with the over/under for total points set at 140.5. The SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates every college basketball game 10,000 times, has weighed in on the matchup. The model enters the 2026-27 season on an 11-1 run with its top-rated over/under college basketball picks dating back to 2025, and it has gone 28-22 on its top-rated side picks over that stretch.
After breaking down the game from every angle, the model is going Under on the 140.5-point total. The Under has cashed in five of McNeese's last eight games, and neither team profiled as a high-scoring offense last season. The Cowboys ranked 85th nationally in scoring at 79.7 points per game, while North Texas finished 288th in the country at 70.9 points per game.
The model's projections call for four North Texas players to reach double figures, with Je'Shawn Stevenson expected to lead the Mean Green with more than 18 points. On the McNeese side, Larry Johnson is the lone player projected to score 21 points or more. Overall, the model has the Under hitting in 56 percent of its simulations.
The model has also found value against the spread, projecting that one side of the number covers in well over 60 percent of simulations. The full spread pick, along with the rest of the model's analysis for the game, is available on SportsLine.
