The Daily Sweat: Houston and Wake Forest are favored in Friday's bowl games

Our December football feast continues on Friday with two bowl games before the Christmas weekend.

Houston faces off against Louisiana in the Independence Bowl (3 p.m. ET, ESPN) before Missouri plays Are Forest in the Gasparilla Bowl (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Let’s start in Shreveport, where the Cougars are favored by seven. And they’ve been one of the most bizarre teams in college football in 2022. Houston is 13th in the country with 37 points per game but also allows over 33 points per game. Just 13 teams give up more points than the Cougars do.

Houston finished 7-5 and had a wild end to the regular season. The Cougars lost 77-63 to SMU to start November before beating a moribund Temple team by seven at home. The Cougars then went to East Carolina and drubbed a good Pirates squad 42-3 before losing by seven to Tulsa at home in the regular season finale. Tulsa finished below .500 and fired coach Philip Montgomery after the season.

Louisiana is 6-6 in Michael Desormeaux’s first season as head coach. Louisiana never won more than two games in a row in 2022 and has losses to Rice and Louisiana-Monroe. It also has wins over Eastern Michigan, Marshall and Georgia Southern.

These teams were meant to play each other in a bowl and their unpredictability is a big reason why we’re not sure about the spread in this one. Over 56.5 is tempting, but the forecast high in Shreveport is just 27 with 10-20 mph winds from the north. This may be a game you want to live bet or sit out completely.

Wake Forest (7-5) is a 2-point favorite over Missouri in the nightcap. The Demon Deacons were 6-1 after beating Boston College by 28 on Oct. 22. They proceeded to lose four of their final five games of the season, though all four losses came to teams that went to bowl games.

Wake Forest is also a high-scoring team; the Demon Deacons score 37 points per game. But that may be a decent matchup for Missouri. The Tigers allowed just 210 passing yards a game on defense and have a defensive line that can get up the field in a hurry. However, Isaiah McGuire (8.5 sacks, 14 TFL) and Martez Manuel (10, 4) aren’t playing as they prep for the NFL draft.

If Missouri (6-6) can’t slow down Wake Forest’s offense, its offense will have a hard time keeping up. QB Brady Cook threw for just 13 TDs, though he emerged as a strong running threat down the stretch. We like Wake Forest minus the points in this one.

Loaded NBA slate

With no games on Christmas Eve, every team but Utah and Golden State is in action on Friday night.

The best game in the night is in Brooklyn as the surging Nets host the Bucks. Milwaukee is a 2.5-point underdog despite being the top team in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn is now just 2.5 games back of Milwaukee after a seven-game win streak. The Nets have also won nine of their last 10 games.

The Sixers host the Clippers and are 3.5-point favorites. The Clippers should be at close to full strength after the full roster was available on Wednesday night in an easy win over the Hornets. The Sixers are still without Tyrese Maxey and James Harden has shot just 42.5% from the field in December after he returned from a month-long injury absence.

Who cashed tickets on Thursday?

Jaguars and under bettors got a nice win as Jacksonville beat the Jets 19-3. It was another disastrous outing for Zach Wilson as he got benched for Chris Streveler.

If you bet the total in the Armed Forces Bowl, you either won or lost depending on when you got the number. The total was at 48 earlier in the week but dropped to 43.5 as Thursday night’s forecast got cold and windy. Air Force ended up beating Baylor 30-15 and put the actual total right in the middle.