The Villanova Wildcats coverless streak extended to six straight on Tuesday night when it pulled out an 11 point win as near 15-point favorites against Georgetown. They’ll look to put an end to that streak on the road Saturday afternoon when they invade Cincinnati for a huge No. 1 versus No. 2 matchup with the Xavier Musketeers. Though a win won’t earn the X-Men the conference lead, it won’t stop them from looking to avenge a bitter defeat suffered to the Cats over a month ago.
This war on the floor will go down Saturday, February 11, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. ET at the Cintas Center. The game will be televised live on FOX. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on Saturday’s college basketball schedule.
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Nova kicked off its Big East slate in style winning seven of its first eight games and getting the best of the line makers five times. Since then, the team has regressed in a major way for college hoops bettors with Jay Wright’s kids failing to cover each of its last six games. Since taking care of Creighton in its conference road opener, the defending champs have gone 2-2 straight up and 1-3 against the spread on the true road.
With so much experience back from last year’s team, many were bullish on the Musketeers heading into the season. Due to injury, Xavier hasn’t performed like most expected. After covering 20 of 34 games last season, the X-Men enter this game owners of an 11-12 record against the spread. Though it’s won all three games since Edmond Sumner went down for the season, it only managed one cover. It was huge however after Chris Mack’s kids went into Omaha and toppled the Bluejays.
Player to Watch
Trevon Bluiett – With all eyes now on the junior, Trevon Bluiett has responded with some of his most impressive efforts of the season. He went for 21 points and 10 rebounds in the game Sumner went down against St. Johns, and followed it up with 24 against Seton Hall, 16 versus Creighton, and a game-high 20 in the team’s most recent win against DePaul. He had one of his worst games of the season in the first go round against the Wildcats hitting just 2 of 10 shots for 10 points. He also turned it over four times. For the Musketeers to pull another upset a week later, Xavier’s best player must bring his “A” game to the gym.
Last Meeting
The game was competitive for the first 20 minutes with Nova holding a 34-28 lead, but it got completely out of hand in the second half. The Wildcats outscored the Musketeers 45-26 and cruised to the 79-54 win and cover as 8 point chalk. The combined 133 points fell way below the 145 point closing total. It marked the fifth time in the last six years that Xavier got thumped by double-digits on Nova’s home court prompting the Musketeers coach to sound off.
"The annual Villanova (butt)-kicking," said Xavier coach Chris Mack, clearly perturbed. "I'm getting really tired of it." When pressed further, Mack said that his team wasn't up to the challenge. "Villanova is really good," he said. "That's no secret. We have to be better. We didn't play very well in the second half."
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The Musketeers lone win versus Villanova dating back to 2014 occurred on this floor last season when Bluiett and company scored the 90-83 outright win as 1 point underdogs. If they’re to mimic that feat today, they’re going to have to put two full halves together unlike they did in the first go round. They’ll also have to take much better care of the ball than they did against the Blue Demons who forced 19 turnovers. Do that in this one, and you can kiss your win streak goodbye.
While the X-Men no doubt have the roster to win a game like this, I just don’t see it happening. Nova plays an exceptional brand of defense and hits its free throws at an 80-plus percent clip. Those two aspects help win a ton of games on the road, and that’s why the defending champs have won five of seven as visitors. Pair that with the Wildcats recent dominance of this series, and I foresee another low scoring win going the way of Villanova.
College Basketball Odds: Villanova 71, Xavier 66
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