The Villanova Wildcats and the Providence Friars meet in college basketball action from the Amica Mutual Pavilion on Saturday afternoon. Let’s dive into the odds, injuries, matchup history and make a prediction for this game.
Odds
Providence is listed as a 3.5-point home favorite with a ML price of -188. The total for this game is set at 137.5 points.
Injuries
For Villanova, Nnanna Njoku is out indefinitely with a foot injury and for Providence, Quante Berry remains out indefinitely with an undisclosed injury.
Matchup History
Providence’s 70-65 win back on January 29th, 2023, snapped Villanova’s two-game head-to-head win streak in this matchup.
Trends
Villanova is 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games following an ATS win and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 Saturday games while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 games overall. Providence is 14-4 ATS in their last 18 games overall and 7-2 ATS in their last 9 home games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games following a win.
Pick
I’m leaning towards Villanova here. This might be one of the few times that I’ve backed the Wildcats here, I could probably count them on one hand, but the reality is that the Wildcats are slowly improving now that they’re healthy and they need to string positive performances together as winning the Big East tournament is likely Villanova’s lone way to get into the NCAA tournament, so they need all the momentum they could get. Providence does a good job in close games under Ed Cooley, but this is a lot to ask after double OT against Creighton in a bit of an emotional letdown spot. Give me the Wildcats and the points.