Liberty vs Villanova Pick – Basketball Predictions & Odds 3/14/23

The Liberty Flames and the Villanova Wildcats meet in college basketball action from the Liberty Arena on Tuesday night.

Liberty Flames Team Preview

The Liberty Flames finished the year after going 26-8 overall, including a 15-3 mark in ASUN conference play for a share of the ASUN regular season title with Kennesaw State. The Flames took down Bellarmine and Eastern Kentucky before falling to Kennesaw State by a point in the ASUN Conference Championship game. Darius McGhee leads the Flames in scoring with 22.5 PPG while Kyle Rode has 10.9 PPG with 3.6 APG as the only other double-digit scorer for Liberty up to this point in the year. Blake Preston has a team-high 5.2 RPG while Colin Porter leads Liberty in assists with 3.8 APG this season. As a team, Liberty is averaging 75.2 PPG on 47.6% shooting from the field, 37.5% from three and 73.4% from the foul line this season.

Villanova Wildcats Team Preview

The Villanova Wildcats finished year one of the Kyle Neptune era with a record of 17-16 overall, including a 10-10 mark in Big East conference play. The Wildcats took out Georgetown in the first round before losing to Creighton in the quarterfinals. Eric Dixon leads the Wildcats in scoring with 15.5 PPG and in rebounding with 6.4 RPG while Caleb Daniels has 14.5 PPG with 4.5 RPG and a team-high 2.6 APG this season. Justin Moore has 13.5 PPG and Cam Whitmore has 12.5 PPG with 5.3 RPG to cap off the scoring in double figures for Villanova this season. As a team, Villanova is averaging 70 PPG on 43.8% shooting from the field, 34% from three and 82.1% from the foul line this season.

Trends

Liberty is 14-2 ATS in their last 16 home games and 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games following an ATS loss while the over is 6-2 in their last 8 games overall. Villanova is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games following an ATS loss and 15-6-1 ATS in their last 22 Tuesday games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games following a loss.

Pick

I’m backing Liberty here. I think there’s some level of disappointment on both sides that they’re not in the NCAA tournament, but the Flames don’t often get a crack at the big boys when they don’t make the NCAA tournament, especially at home. Villanova I don’t think will be overly excited for this game and I think Liberty with their home court edge actually gets it done here. I’ll back Liberty in this one.