Sport: College HoopsPick Selection: See Writeup
Villanova Wildcats vs. DePaul Blue Demons 12:00 PM ET
Villanova Wildcats -4 -105
Villanova is one of the hotter teams heading into Big East Tournament action and that is a big edge this time of the season. The Wildcats bring a three-game winning streak with it to the tournament and since the start of February, they have won seven of nine contests. Despite being a No. 9 seed in the tournament, Villanova has a stronger RPI than six of the eight teams in front of it as the Wildcats are currently 19th in the RPI. DePaul meanwhile, a seed higher, comes in with an RPI of 62nd.
DePaul also heads into the tournament with some solid momentum, winning five of its last six games to move into that 8th spot. But the recent schedule has been very much in the Blue Demons favor. Four of those six games came at home while three of those came against teams that didn?t even make the trip to the tournament. The road has not been good to DePaul either as it won only four times on the season, two of those against South Florida and Rutgers wit h one of those also coming against Villanova setting up a big revenge spot.
Villanova meanwhile finished with a very solid 9-4 record in road games. The Wildcats outscored the opposition by 4.6 ppg while DePaul was outscored by 3.9 ppg. Villanova shot an amazing 78.1 percent from the free throw line in road contests, 5th best in the country. That compared to a 64.6 percent rate for the Blue Demons. Neutral site games showed an even bigger disparity. Both teams have played three games on a neutral court with the Wildcats holding a +12.4 ppg edge while DePaul was -7.0 ppg.
As mentioned this is a revenge game for the Wildcats and they fall into a solid situation. Play on neutral court teams that are revenging a straight up loss against opponent as a favorite of seven points or more, playing only their 2nd game in a week. This situation is 36-13-1 ATS (73.5 percent) since 1997 with the average point differential being +8.5 ppg in favor of the play on team. There is actually talk that Villanova isn?t a sure thing for the tournament despite its RPI but a big win here solidifies its invitation. Play Villanova Wildcats 2 Units
SMU Mustangs vs. Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles 3:30 PM ET
Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles -4.5 -108
These two teams are in totally opposite places and also in opposite places of where I thought they would be. Southern Mississippi got off to a great start this season but I was hardly sold based on the ease of the non-conference schedule as it was one of the softest in the nation. The Golden Eagles came out of that and entered C-USA action and actually responded very well. They closed the season with eight wins in their final 13 games and gave Memphis its biggest scare at home, a three-point affair.
SMU was expected to do much more this season especially with new head coach Matt Doherty at the helm. After starting the season 11-3, the Mustangs started conference action with a one-point setback at home to these same Golden Eagles and started a downward spiral that they never recovered from. SMU went 3-13 in C-USA with the first two wins coming by a combined six points and the third coming against East Carolina, who won only one game in the conference. The Mustangs are ready to just end it.
Over their last 10 games, the Mustangs have topped the 40 percent mark on offense only twice, shooting a combined 38.6 percent over that span. Over those 10 games, they were outshot by 7.5 percent as the defense allowed opponents to hit 46.1 percent from the field. Taking away that one decent game against hapless East Carolina and the numbers get really bad. The shooting margin dips to -11.2 percent as the offense shot just 37.2 percent in those other nine games. The offense scored more than 60 points only twice.
That 60-point plateau is pretty big. Southern Mississippi held its opponents to fewer than 60 points 13 times total t
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