Gambling watchdog company U.S. Integrity sent out an alert to casinos Thursday regarding unusual wagering activity on the UAB Blazers-Temple Owls men’s basketball game, the American Athletic Conference confirms to Sports Illustrated.
“We are aware they flagged it,” AAC men’s basketball director of communications Tom Fenstermaker says.
The betting line moved significantly during the day Thursday leading up to the game. At one casino, the line moved from UAB as a 1.5-point favorite over Temple at the beginning of the day to UAB as an eight-point favorite by mid-afternoon, then settling at seven closer to tip-off. The Blazers routed the Owls, 100–72, in Temple’s home gym, the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.
That was the second straight loss for Temple and the second straight game in which the Owls did not come close to covering the spread. They were favored by 5.5 points Saturday at home against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane and lost by five. Tulsa opened the game by jumping out to a 16–2 lead and stayed ahead the rest of the way.
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The Owls are 11–19 overall and 4–14 in league play in their first season under coach Adam Fisher. They are scheduled to end their regular season Sunday at the UTSA Roadrunners.
A source in the gambling space says U.S. Integrity has been monitoring Temple games for a while.
“We are aware of the social media posts regarding last night’s men’s basketball game. We will review the reports thoroughly in accordance with university and NCAA policies. While we can’t comment any further at this time, we take this matter very seriously,” Chad Cooper, director of strategic communications for Temple men’s basketball, says.
The AAC is one of many NCAA conferences that employ U.S. Integrity to monitor gambling activity surrounding its member schools and to serve as an educational arm for teaching athletes and staff about how wagering is tracked. With the proliferation of legalized sports wagering, impermissible activity around college competitions has increased.
U.S. Integrity was involved in detecting the Alabama Crimson Tide baseball betting scandal last spring that led to the firing of coach Brad Bohannon.
