Marquette Golden Eagles (21-10) vs Villanova Wildcats (24-6)Big East Tournament Madison Square Garden New York, NYCollege Basketball: Thursday March 11, 2010 2:30 PM ESTThe Line: Villanova - 5
In the second game of day three of the Big East Tournament, Villanova faces off against Marquette. Villanova has been ranked in the top ten just about all season long and they come into this one ranked right at number 10. The Wildcats have lost five of their last seven and aren't hitting the post season with the momentum swinging in the right direction. Scottie Reynolds has been a leader and played his heart out all season long averaging 18.8 points per game bu scoring hasn't been the Cats' problem. Villanova averages 82.8 points per game which is the third highest total in the country as they shoot 46.3 percent and are the 22nd best offensive rebounders. Defensively it hasn't gone well for the Nova as the allow 72.6 points per game which is 283rd in the country as teams shoot 40.5 percent against them. What separated the great teams from a lot of the very good teams is balance and I think Villanova was exposed at the end of the season, it will be interesting to see if the rest helped them address some of these concerns. Marquette advanced to this point in the Big East Tournament doing what they have been doing for the better part of the season, never panicking and playing competitively. The Golden Eagles blew their lead against St. John's but managed to come back and get the win in the end, even though they missed some free throws down the stretch that could have iced it. The close game has become a trademark of this Marquette team as it seems every time out their games come down to just a few points. Lazar Hayward showed off all of his skills as he scored 20 points and had nine rebounds in the win. As a team Marquette has averaged 73.2 points per game as they shoot a nice 45.5 percent but their offensive rebounding comes in at 294th. Defensively Marquette holds teams to 63.3 points per game despite them being 228th in shooting percentage against. Marquette shows no fear and are a handful for everyone they play. Villanova is 4-0 against the spread in their last four neutral site games but they are 2-5 against the spread in their last seven Big East games. Marquette is 5-1 against the spread in their last six games following a game which they didn't cover and 8-2 against the spread in their last 10 games against a team with a winning record. The favorite has covered five of the last seven meetings between these two. I really liked the way Villanova was playing earlier but at some point no matter how much you score, you need to defend and the Cats haven't shown the ability to do that. This line is going higher but I see the game being very close. Mitch's Pick: Marquette + 5 Check out all of our Free College Basketball picks against the spread for 3/11/10Comments (1)
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Jess