Villanova vs Xavier Prediction 2/9/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The Xavier Musketeers and the Villanova Wildcats meet on Sunday in college basketball action from Wells Fargo Center. Here’s a Villanova vs Xavier prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Villanova vs Xavier pick.

Xavier Musketeers Betting Preview

Xavier has been quite the choppy team in the record column so far this year, but overall they’re winning at a higher clip than they’re losing. The Musketeers kicked off the season with a 6-0 run, taking out Texas Southern, IUPUI, Jackson State, Wake Forest, Siena, and South Carolina. A 2-2 stretch came next with losses to Michigan and TCU among wins over South Carolina State and Morgan State. Xavier beat only Seton Hall in their next six, losing otherwise versus Cincinnati, UConn, Marquette, Georgetown, and St. John’s in that time. Since then it’s been a 5-2 run for the Musketeers. The losses have come to St. John’s and Creighton; otherwise, it’s been wins over DePaul, Villanova, Marquette, UConn, and Georgetown in that time. The result in the record column so far has been a 14-9 overall run through the first 23 games of the year.

In the Georgetown matchup back on Tuesday, the Musketeers went into the second half with a 30-26 edge. Xavier hit a 44-43 run the rest of the way and powered out the win 74-69 in the end. Leading the team in scoring was Dailyn Swain with 18 points, four assists, and six rebounds. Marcus Foster managed a double-double of 17 points with 13 rebounds and two assists, while Zach Freemantle added 17 points with three rebounds and a pair of steals.

Villanova Wildcats Betting Preview

Over on the Villanova side, their year has been pretty choppy. The good news is that the Wildcats have managed to keep their heads above the .500 mark so far. Villanova lost to Columbia, St. Joseph’s, Virginia, and Maryland in their first seven games, beating Lafayette, NJIT, and Penn otherwise. The Wildcats took out Rider, Cincinnati, Temple, and Fairleigh Dickinson before a loss to Creighton, then fell to Butler, DePaul, and UConn. It’s been a 2-5 stretch in the last seven outings with wins over only Providence and DePaul. Otherwise, the Wildcats have lost to St. John’s, Xavier, Georgetown, Marquette, and Creighton in that time, giving Villanova a 13-10 overall run through their first 23 games this season so far.

Matched up against DePaul in the Wednesday game, the Wildcats hit a three-point advantage in the first half. Villanova kept it up from there on a 30-23 stretch and took the double-digit road win in the end 59-49. Jordan Longino put up 17 points with three rebounds and two assists. Eric Dixon added 14 points with three rebounds, one assist, and one steal, while Wooga Poplar managed 12 points and six boards with a pair of steals. Enoch Boakye pulled down 10 rebounds with two points in 31 minutes of work during the win as well.

Why the Villanova Wildcats will win

• Villanova has won 32 of its last 37 games at Wells Fargo Center against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• Xavier has lost four of its last five games following a home win.
• Villanova has won the first half in five of its last six day games against Xavier.

Why the Xavier Musketeers will win

• Xavier has won each of its last 13 day games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• Villanova has lost six of its last eight day games.
• Xavier has won the first half in each of its last 10 day games against non-AP-ranked opponents.

Villanova vs Xavier Prediction

I’ll lean toward Xavier. This should be a pretty fun matchup though, and you could probably call it either way. The Musketeers were able to fend off a comparable Georgetown team in their last outing, shooting 51 percent from the field with a 31-24 rebounding edge. It was a sloppy game overall though, with Xavier accounting for 16 of the game’s 29 total turnovers, which translated to 14 Hoyas points. The Musketeers are going to have to watch the mistakes on Sunday in this upcoming road game.

Xavier was able to win at home 69-63 the last time these teams met up back on January 14. The Musketeers’ shooting wasn’t that great (40.8 percent) and they were outmuscled on the boards 34-28 but did get 18 points off 14 turnovers. Xavier won’t be able to count on those turnovers this time, so I’d like to see a significantly higher shooting percentage.