Villanova Wildcats vs. Wisconsin Badgers College Basketball prediction, preview
This is technically a neutral court game between the Wildcats and Badgers, but tipping off about 90 minutes away from Madison in Milwaukee, Wisconsin will have the home crowd going in this one. That said, while the Badgers will have the crowd in their corner, some of that home court advantage is taken away with the game not being played on campus.
Another thing that Wisconsin has on its side entering this game is having a long time off to chew on a bad loss. Earlier in the week I backed Tennessee returning home off a three-game losing streak and facing Louisville, and the Vols got the job done with margin. Wisco lost its last game on the road at Nebraska by 30 points nine days ago and hasn’t played since. I expect the Badgers to be locked in for this game.
That said, I think the price is still off on this one. Many metrics sites have the game right around a pick’em, so catching five or more points, I do have interested in this well-tested Wildcats team. Villanova has played tough games away from home already, and is 3-1 ATS in those matchups. The Cats opened the season against BYU in Las Vegas, and managed to take the game down to the wire — losing by five points as a near double-digit dog.
After playing lesser competition, ‘Nova recently faced off against Michigan and lost by 18 points — honestly, not bad considering what the Wolverines have been doing to teams. The Wildcats bounced back with a nice blowout victory over Pitt, and I believe they should be able to hang with this flawed Wisconsin team.
Both of these teams rank just about even in defensive rating on KenPom, but ‘Nova has a clear edge offensively. Wisco does get a slight edge with the crowd in their favor, but this just boils down to what I project as a very even game. Is the Badgers were priced as a toss up, I’d probably side with them, but I was not expecting to be able to catch five points in this one. I’ll take the value on the Wildcats.
