Nova Report
The Villanova Wildcats take on the Quinnipiac Bobcats tonight at 8:00 pm eastern in the Wells Fargo Center In Philly. The line is -23.5/150. The Cats are playing ?the Big Q? because their coach, Baker Dunleavy, was a Villanova assistant under Jay Wright (Nova?s Head Coach).
The Bobcats style is out of the Villanova playbook (surprise, surprise) as they play hard nosed defense and hoist tons of 3?s. Last year, they were 8th nationally in the amount of three pointers taken. They have their top two scorers back but really just 6?6? Cameron Young is their only serious threat. They have no one over 6?8? and list no one at the Center position. Needless to say, this is an uphill battle for them.
As for the Wildcats, Jay Wright went 11 deep in a 23 point win over Morgan State. He tried quite a few different combinations of players and will again tonight as he?s attempting to figure out who to start vs. Michigan on Wednesday. Nova struggled defensively and turned the ball over way too many times last game.
I don?t think Jay Wright wants to embarrass his former assistant coach and, for sure, he?ll get a better defensive performance. Nonetheless, the Cats should cover this spread. To hedge it a bit, my bet will be a 5 point teaser: Nova-18.5/Over 145.