Nova Report
The 12-10 Villanova Wildcats are in Cincinnati to do battle with the 12-10 Xavier Musketeers. Tip is 7:00 pm eastern. Xavier is -3.5/148.5.
The Musketeers are 9-4 at home and come off of a dismantling of DePaul where Quincy Olivari popped for 43 points. In fact, the whole team is on a roll winning 5 of 7 with their two losses being at UCONN and at Creighton. Desmond Claude has scored 19 plus in 5 of the last 7. Dayvion McKnight has scored 18 plus in 5 of the last 6. Olivari, Claude and McKnight are referred to as Xavier’s 3 headed monster and have made the Musketeers the fasted paced club in the Big East.
And yes, Villanova is the Big East’s slowest paced team. The Cats broke a 5 game losing streak by beating Providence 68-50 Sunday. Back on January 3, Nova held on to beat Xavier 66-65 as the Musketeers last shot to win the game bounced off the rim. By beating Providence, Villanova still has a pulse regarding NCAA hopes. This game will make or break that dream. So, will the Cats come out with a vicious defense like they did vs Providence? Or will they lapse into thoughtless defense like they did in their 5 game losing streak?
The Cats can out muscle Xavier inside and it will be interesting if Dixon, Moore and Bomba take advantage of this. Ousmane, Xavier’s center, is foul prone and his replacement is not a threat. Xavier is the Big East’s second leading offense rebounding club so it would be helpful to pile up fouls on Ousmane. Villanova bench players Hausen and Hart had huge games back in January vs Xavier so we’ll likely see them notch some minutes.
i have been unable to successfully cap this team. The betting public has steamed the total from 144.5 to 148.5. I will go the other way.
Nova Pick: Under 149 (bought 1/2 point)
Nova Pick Record: 7-15