Marquette vs. Villanova, 7:00 ET
Marquette vs. Villanova, 7:00 ET
With a big day of Saturday basketball looming, the schedule for Friday doesn’t have a ton of big names on the docket. That doesn’t really matter as there are more than enough great teams taking the floor for us to focus in on. Sure, there are also some smaller schools or games that have good value for you as well, but I have a look on a couple of the more popular names for tonight’s slate. We have a game tonight between Marquette and Villanova that should not only be good, but line our pockets.
Marquette has been a bit all over the place this season in terms of their ranks as a top program in the nation. The Golden Eagles are good, no question. At one point in the season they were one of the top five ranked teams, and today they come in as the 16th-ranked team in the nation. It is arguable that they are currently playing the worst basketball of their season. They lost three games from November 4th until January 28th. This month, in five games, they’ve dropped three of them, all in a row. The three losses came at home to UConn, then on the road against St. John’s and Creighton. Now they need to once again go on the road and try and grab a win. They haven’t been overly dominant away from their Milwaukee home base. Against conference opponents, on the road, they’ve beaten teams by two, 28, two, seven, and nine points. So just one of those games was one they could coast in. They struggled against DePaul for example, and beat them by two points in overtime. I get that sometimes team overlook opponents, but sometimes it seems like Marquette just struggles.
Villanova hasn’t had quite as much success as Marquette this season, but make no mistake this is a pretty strong team that most won’t really look forward to facing. There are probably some questions on if they will make the NCAA Tournament, and I am guessing they won’t unless they can grab some wins against teams like Marquette. As of tonight, they are 15-12 overall, and 8-8 in conference games. They;ve certainly lost to teams they should’ve beaten this season, but they’ve also beat some really good teams. They have wins over UConn, St. John’s, and Cincinnati. They only have one game this season where they lost against a ranked opponent and that was against Marquette on the road. (Just a note, they did also lose to St. John’s on the road, but at that time St. John’s wasn’t ranked.) This team is led by two guys who carry the bulk of the scoring load. They have Eric Dizon who is putting in 22.9 points per game, and Wooga Polar who contributes another 15 per game. Those two combine to put together a backcourt that is going to be very tough for most teams to deal with.
In tonight’s game, you have to wonder if Villanova is going to be able to leverage the home court advantage. Their team has been fairly average and seems to play to their competition. That’s actually a good sign in this one as they are trying to beat a ranked team. The game is a coinflip for a reason and while I lean toward Marquette, I’m not running to the window to bet it. Instead, I like the idea of taking the under for this one. The teams haven’t been scoring great lately, but their defenses have been doing well enough even during losses. Back under 142.5.
