Villanova vs Lafayette Prediction 11-4-24 College Basketball Picks

The Lafayette Leopards and the Villanova Wildcats meet Monday in college basketball action from the Finneran Pavilion. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for this game. Here’s a Lafayette vs. Villanova prediction.

Lafayette Recap

The Lafayette Leopards come into the 2024-25 season looking to shake off an up and down 2023-24 campaign where Lafayette finished year one of the Mike McGarvey era at 11-21 overall, but did have a 10-8 mark in conference play. The Leopards were crushed in non-conference play with an offense that couldn’t hold up, but Justin Vander Baan and Chris Rubayo are back in the paint to give the Leopards some solid interior defense. Devin Hines and Mark Butler will anchor the backcourt, and only time will tell if the Leopards can sustain a strong start in Patriot League play, should they even get off to a strong start to begin with.

Why the Lafayette Leopards will win

• Villanova has lost four of its last five games.

Villanova Recap

The Villanova Wildcats come into the 2024-25 season looking to improve on what ended up being another frustrating season under Kyle Neptune, finishing 18-16 overall and 10-10 in Big East play for the second straight year, missing the postseason tournament for the second straight season, after making the national semifinals back in 2021-22. Eric Dixon is back as the mainstay in this Villanova rotation, and the key for Neptune was nabbing experience and poise with his moves in the transfer portal. Wooga Poplar rose to prominence in Miami’s lineup, helping the ‘Canes make the Elite Eight in 2022 and the final four the next year and Jhamir Brickus transfers in from La Salle to add backcourt depth. Enoch Boakye comes in from Fresno State to give the Wildcats some size up front as well.

Why the Villanova Wildcats will win

• Lafayette has lost each of its last nine games against non-Conference opponents.
• Villanova has won each of its last 11 Monday games at Finneran Pavilion.

Lafayette vs. Villanova Prediction

I’m on Villanova here. It’s completely fair to say that Villanova is a disappointment so far in the Kyle Neptune era, but if nothing else, the Wildcats stepped on lesser opposition early last year while the Leopards went 0-12 in the non-conference portion of their schedule and the lack of offense that was previously mentioned had a lot to do with why Lafayette got smashed as often as they did. Am I worried about Villanova’s chemistry out of the gate? Maybe, but they’re still the far better team here and I think that I trust them to beat up Lafayette more than I trust the Leopards to hang around in this game. Give me Villanova.