Georgetown Hoyas travel to face Villanova
College basketball is just heating up and this weekend's action is the Big East alone is enough to remind us of that. Top 10 schools collide in Morgantown on Saturday when Jim Boeheim and the Syracuse Orange hit the road to battle the West Virginia Mountaineers. Sunday's key contest finds Scottie Reynolds and the Villanova Wildcats looking to stay unbeaten in conference play against the visiting Hoyas.
Selection Sunday is less than two months away. Yes, you read that correctly. Before you can say “Artsiom Parakhouski,” it’ll be time for March Madness. Will you be ready?
Even if you’re only now getting into college hoops after making the transition from football, you still have the next eight weeks to build up your basketball knowledge before the NCAA men’s Tournament. That’s eight weeks more than most people invest before throwing their hard-earned cash into the annual office pool.
Too bad for them, but that knowledge gap is also why college basketball is near the top of the menu for most sharp bettors. Let’s widen that gap with a look at two of this weekend’s biggest betting matchups – both from the Big East.
No. 5 Syracuse at No. 10 West Virginia
Saturday - 12:00 p.m. (ERT) ESPN
It’s our third consecutive week looking at the Mountaineers (13-2 SU, 6-8 ATS), who suffered defeat at Purdue (-4½) and Notre Dame (+4½) in our previous encounters. The Purdue loss is understandable; the Boilers are one of the best teams in Division I. But Notre Dame?
The unranked Irish jumped out to a 25-4 lead and weathered the storm from there to prevail 70-68, easily the worst performance by West Virginia in what has otherwise been a tremendous first half of the season.
And then you have the wonderful Syracuse Orange (16-1 SU, 10-3 ATS), who have taken their doubters to the woodshed after losing guard Jonny Flynn and other notables from last year’s squad. Syracuse was being projected as a Tournament bubble team during the preseason; now the Orange are pounding the betting odds by an average of 5.7 points going into Wednesday’s action, a comfortable margin that’s dripping with value. West Virginia has a negative ATS margin of -0.65 points.
This looks like a tough spot for the Mountaineers. Syracuse has a reputation for hitting the 3-pointer, but this team does a lot of damage inside, hitting 59.5 percent of its 2-point attempts. Only the Sun Belt’s Denver Pioneers (61.6 percent) are shooting better from inside the arc in all of Division I. The Mountaineers are below average at interior defense, which was their undoing against Notre Dame.
WVU is 2-4 ATS at home thus far; Syracuse is 2-0 ATS on the road.
No. 11 Georgetown at No. 4 Villanova
Sunday - 12:00 p.m. (ET)
Bettors don’t even want to touch the Hoyas after what they did last year: 16-15 SU and 9-17-1 ATS. Georgetown is already much improved at 12-2 SU and 5-5 ATS going into Thursday’s action, but the Hoyas have dropped the cash in three of their last four games, and they’ve got a tough battle on their hands against the highly profitable Wildcats (15-1 SU, 11-4 ATS).
Villanova is beating the spread by a relatively comfortable margin of 2.2 points; Georgetown is at -2.0 points with that glaring 61-57 loss against Old Dominion (+9) on the record books.
It will be very interesting indeed to see how the oddsmakers react to this matchup. Villanova has done almost all of its damage on offense; the ‘Cats are ranked No. 90 in defensive efficiency according to Ken Pomeroy. They win their games through sheer volume shooting, running one of the fastest paces in Division I at an adjusted 73.2 possessions per game. The OVER is 10-5 for Villanova in these generous conditions.
The Hoyas, on the other hand, are very big with 6-foot-11 Greg Monroe (14.4 points, 9.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists per game) manning the middle. They run at a snail’s pace of 67.0 possessions per game with the 'under' at 6-4. Georgetown has played a tougher schedule than Villanova this year with victories over Butler (+2½), Washington (+2) and UConn (+5).
It’s an interesting clash of styles that should allow for both offenses to take flight; as stout as the Hoyas are inside, they’re only No. 137 in the nation at defending the 3-pointer (33.5 percent allowed). Bombs away.
College basketball is just heating up and this weekend's action is the Big East alone is enough to remind us of that. Top 10 schools collide in Morgantown on Saturday when Jim Boeheim and the Syracuse Orange hit the road to battle the West Virginia Mountaineers. Sunday's key contest finds Scottie Reynolds and the Villanova Wildcats looking to stay unbeaten in conference play against the visiting Hoyas.
Selection Sunday is less than two months away. Yes, you read that correctly. Before you can say “Artsiom Parakhouski,” it’ll be time for March Madness. Will you be ready?
Even if you’re only now getting into college hoops after making the transition from football, you still have the next eight weeks to build up your basketball knowledge before the NCAA men’s Tournament. That’s eight weeks more than most people invest before throwing their hard-earned cash into the annual office pool.
Too bad for them, but that knowledge gap is also why college basketball is near the top of the menu for most sharp bettors. Let’s widen that gap with a look at two of this weekend’s biggest betting matchups – both from the Big East.
No. 5 Syracuse at No. 10 West Virginia
Saturday - 12:00 p.m. (ERT) ESPN
It’s our third consecutive week looking at the Mountaineers (13-2 SU, 6-8 ATS), who suffered defeat at Purdue (-4½) and Notre Dame (+4½) in our previous encounters. The Purdue loss is understandable; the Boilers are one of the best teams in Division I. But Notre Dame?
The unranked Irish jumped out to a 25-4 lead and weathered the storm from there to prevail 70-68, easily the worst performance by West Virginia in what has otherwise been a tremendous first half of the season.
And then you have the wonderful Syracuse Orange (16-1 SU, 10-3 ATS), who have taken their doubters to the woodshed after losing guard Jonny Flynn and other notables from last year’s squad. Syracuse was being projected as a Tournament bubble team during the preseason; now the Orange are pounding the betting odds by an average of 5.7 points going into Wednesday’s action, a comfortable margin that’s dripping with value. West Virginia has a negative ATS margin of -0.65 points.
This looks like a tough spot for the Mountaineers. Syracuse has a reputation for hitting the 3-pointer, but this team does a lot of damage inside, hitting 59.5 percent of its 2-point attempts. Only the Sun Belt’s Denver Pioneers (61.6 percent) are shooting better from inside the arc in all of Division I. The Mountaineers are below average at interior defense, which was their undoing against Notre Dame.
WVU is 2-4 ATS at home thus far; Syracuse is 2-0 ATS on the road.
No. 11 Georgetown at No. 4 Villanova
Sunday - 12:00 p.m. (ET)
Bettors don’t even want to touch the Hoyas after what they did last year: 16-15 SU and 9-17-1 ATS. Georgetown is already much improved at 12-2 SU and 5-5 ATS going into Thursday’s action, but the Hoyas have dropped the cash in three of their last four games, and they’ve got a tough battle on their hands against the highly profitable Wildcats (15-1 SU, 11-4 ATS).
Villanova is beating the spread by a relatively comfortable margin of 2.2 points; Georgetown is at -2.0 points with that glaring 61-57 loss against Old Dominion (+9) on the record books.
It will be very interesting indeed to see how the oddsmakers react to this matchup. Villanova has done almost all of its damage on offense; the ‘Cats are ranked No. 90 in defensive efficiency according to Ken Pomeroy. They win their games through sheer volume shooting, running one of the fastest paces in Division I at an adjusted 73.2 possessions per game. The OVER is 10-5 for Villanova in these generous conditions.
The Hoyas, on the other hand, are very big with 6-foot-11 Greg Monroe (14.4 points, 9.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists per game) manning the middle. They run at a snail’s pace of 67.0 possessions per game with the 'under' at 6-4. Georgetown has played a tougher schedule than Villanova this year with victories over Butler (+2½), Washington (+2) and UConn (+5).
It’s an interesting clash of styles that should allow for both offenses to take flight; as stout as the Hoyas are inside, they’re only No. 137 in the nation at defending the 3-pointer (33.5 percent allowed). Bombs away.