Playing in the Big East allows plenty of opportunities to collect wins over ranked opponents. The Georgetown Hoyas aren’t ranked in the AP top 25, but they have the most victories against ranked foes of any team in the conference that hasn’t garnered a national rating, and just knocked off Creighton and Butler in consecutive games last week. They’ll get another shot at taking down a ranked team when they visit the Villanova Wildcats on Tuesday.
This war on the floor will go down Tuesday, February 7, 2017, at 7 p.m. ET at The Pavilion. The game will be televised live on FS1. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Tuesday schedule.
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Georgetown may have been looking ahead to this matchup and it cost them in a loss to Seton Hall on Saturday. The Hoyas had just hammered No. 16 Creighton at home and edged No. 11 Butler on the road before squeaking by last place DePaul. They were feeling good about themselves after their first three-game winning streak in league play. Then came the 68-66 overtime loss to the Pirates where the Hoyas failed to cover as a 3-point favorite. Georgetown is 0-2 ATS in its last two games and just 3-9 ATS in the Big East play.
Since their stunning loss at Marquette on Jan. 24, the Wildcats have responded in the win column with three straight victories, but they continue to struggle at the betting window. Villanova upended St. John’s 92-79 on Saturday, but failed to cover the 16.5-point spread. Nova is 0-5 ATS in its last five games, but returns to its on-campus facility after going 0-3 ATS in its last three at Wells Fargo Center. The Wildcats are 8-0 SU and 5-2 ATS in games played at The Pavilion this season.
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Kris Jenkins is Villanova’s third leading scorer and an important piece of the team’s lineup that doesn’t have a lot of depth. So, when the senior leader struggles, the Wildcats suffer along with him. Jenkins had his worst game of the year two weeks ago against Marquette, scoring a season-low two points and shooting 0 of 7 from the field. Not surprisingly, the Wildcats were upset 74-72. He followed that with an 8-point outing in a slim win over Virginia and scored just six points in a win over Providence on Feb. 1.
Making just 4 of 29 shots in that three-game span when the team was 0-3 ATS prompted Jay Wright to put the struggling Jenkins on the bench at the start of Saturday’s game against St. John’s. Entering the contest just three minutes in, Jenkins helped Villanova to a comfortable 92-79 victory by scoring 15 points in only 24 minutes of action.
Key Stat
Villanova was outhustled and as Wright said, the Johnnies “played harder than us.” Yet the Wildcats were able to come away with a victory due to their relentless defense and ability to make free throws. Nova held the Red Storm without a field goal in their first 12 shots and built a comfortable lead in the first half only to see that whittled away by a flurry of turnovers. In all, the Wildcats gave the ball away a season-high 23 times.
But when St. John’s made another late second half surge, it was the ability of Nova to knock down its free throws that put the game away. The Wildcats made 25 of 27 attempts from the stripe for a staggering 92.6 percent and increased the nation’s third-best free throw percentage to 80.0. The top four scorers all shoot 79 percent or better and it makes building a comeback difficult if the Wildcats aren’t helping out with missed charity shots.
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Georgetown doesn’t have many options on offense other than Rodney Pryor and L.J. Peak. The team’s two leading scorers had problems connecting from the field in the Hoyas loss to Seton Hall, yet they kept trying. They combined to go 12 of 32 from the field, taking over half the team’s shots. When they aren’t connecting, the Hoyas struggle.
And the Wildcats play a stingy brand of defense, easily the best in the Big East and among the best in the country. With Nova locking down on Pryor and Peak, Georgetown will have problems scoring the basketball. And playing catch up against the Wildcats isn’t the position anyone wants to be in. Villanova doesn’t have a deep bench, but the rotations work and the starting five are good. I don’t see the Wildcats losing this game, but they have had trouble covering the spread.
College Basketball Odds: Villanova 77, Georgetown 65
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