The college hoops season will take a quick break on Christmas Eve, but before that, we’ve got a slew of games on the hardwood for December 23. The highlight game in primetime will feature the Villanova Wildcats on the road against the Marquette Golden Eagles on FS1.
Morning betting action favored Villanova, who is a 4.5-point favorite at BetOnline Sportsbook with a total of 142.5. The line opened in the -3 range at BOL, so some influential bettors that play on overnights and early-morning numbers do like the visitors.
Let’s handicap the game and see if we do as well.
Villanova Wildcats
Jay Wright’s team is out to a 7-1 start that includes two Big East victories already. The Wildcats lost in overtime to Virginia Tech by an 81-73 score back on November 28. Otherwise, they are unblemished, including a road win over Texas down in Austin. Villanova was thought to be in a compromising situational spot on Saturday against Saint Joseph’s after playing two Big East games against Georgetown and Butler with this game on deck, but they won by 20. Villanova usually plays all of the Big 5 teams in the Philadelphia area, but Penn is not playing because of COVID. Temple and La Salle are not on the schedule. From this point forward, barring the scheduling of a random non-conference game, the remainder of Villanova’s schedule is made up of Big East competition. We’ll see if it holds, but from an adjusted tempo standpoint per Bart Torvik, this is the most deliberate Villanova team of the Jay Wright era. They rank 335th nationally in adjusted tempo. It has been a good look for them, as they rank second in TO% on offense, which allows them to dictate the game. They’re a top-five team in adjusted offensive efficiency. It doesn’t hurt that Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Justin Moore came back for their sophomore seasons. Villanova lost Saddiq Bey, but the rest of the team from 2020 remains mostly in tact. Senior leader Collin Gillespie is shooting 42% on three-pointers to make up for shooting 43% on three-pointers. It is tough to find any flaws with this Villanova team. They are a top-15 defensive rebounding team and they’ve been solid at the free-throw line. Their base defense could be a little stronger, but it has been after a slow start and the offense covers up a lot of other deficiencies.CLAIM YOUR WELCOME BONUS FROM BETONLINE SPORTSBOOK