Villanova vs Marquette from MSG for Big East Quarters

Thursday at 2:30pm EST, Madison Square Garden in NY, NY plays host to Villanova Wildcats and the Marquette Golden Eagles in a Big East Quarterfinal matchup. In their previous two meetings, the Villanova Wildcats won a pair of two point games, 74-72 and 78-76.

Marquette +5
Villanova -5

The college basketball odds makers expect the Wildcats to more dominating this time around as the college basketball betting line has Villanova favored by -5 points.

Villanova had been the second best team in the Big East opening the in-conference games 9-0 but due to a 4-5 finish to the regular season, they are the fourth seed in the tournament. This puts them on the same side of the tournament bracket as Syracuse. Many ‘Nova fans were hoping to face their Big East Rivals in the tournament finals but they’ll have to settle for the semis but only if they can get by the Golden Eagles.

The Golden Eagles beat St. Johns, 57-55 to make it into the quarterfinal; Marquette was the favorite but couldn’t cover the 4-point spread. This season Marquette has done an admirable job against the spread covering with a 15-9-1 ATS record. The Golden Eagles are known for playing up or down to their competition, three or fewer points decided 12 of their 19 in-conference games this season. Four of their final five games went to overtime. These are important stats when we consider the line is Marquette +5 points.

For Villanova, senior guard Scottie Reynolds is hoping to make up for Big East tournament’s past, in the Conference tourney, Reynolds has only shot 34.2 percent in his previous 3 tournaments.

Before you make your pick for today’s game here are some betting trends to consider, the Golden Eagles are 5-0 ATS in their past 5 as an underdog and an even better 8-2 ATS versus teams with a .600 win-percentage or better. Villanova is 4-0 ATS in their past 4 neutral site games and 4-1 ATS in their first game after a loss. Something has to give, looking at their head-to-head record the Golden Eagles are 7-2 in their past nine games.

I think the numbers that stand out the most for me are the number of games that the Golden Eagles kept within 3 points and with the line 5 points, it gives us a couple of point more than recent stats suggest.

Big East Tournament Quarterfinals pick: Marquette Golden Eagles +5