The UConn Huskies are ranked 24th in college basketball and need to string more wins together. Today, they face off against the team following closely behind them in the polls, the Xavier Musketeers.
These two teams had their first game of the year postponed, so they have yet to face this season. The Huskies just beat Marquette and now hope to take down Xavier.
The Musketeers are going to hit the court at full speed on Friday night. They’ve lost two straight games and continue to move down in the rankings. In order to prevent plummeting further, they’ll need to secure a win here.
The spread on this game is really close, with Xavier coming in as a 1.5-point favorite. Let’s go over what both teams bring to the game and who you should choose.
UConn Huskies: A big game from R.J. Cole is needed tonight
One of the biggest problems on both of these teams is scoring. Neither of these teams has a player that can take over the game and put points up.
The closest that UConn gets is R.J. Cole, who averages 16 points per game. Still, they need a lot more from him, especially as they face the Musketeers’ defense. If they have trouble putting points up, they could lose to Xavier.
One area they do better in than Xavier is shooting from beyond the arc. The Huskies need to use this to their advantage and get Cole open from the three-point line. As a team, the Huskies are shooting 35.38% from the three-point line.
By using this, they can stretch the floor on Xavier and get their players out of position. From there, the Huskies are free to drive through the lane.
Xavier Musketeers: Xavier looks to get the edge over UConn
As a defense, the Musketeers are quite good. On average, they only allow 64.96 points per game, ranking 70th in college basketball. They’ll need this defense against the Huskies, who average 78.05 points per game.
Unfortunately for the Musketeers, their offense doesn’t really have enough juice to keep up with UConn. They’ll need to rely on their defense to win tonight.
The player that leads the team in average points per game is Jack Nunge. However, he leads the team with an average of 12.7 points per game.
There’s another player that has actually stepped his game up, though, Zach Freemantle. Freemantle put up 23 points in the Musketeers win over Butler. A big scoring night from him could mean a win for Xavier against UConn.
UConn Huskies vs. Xavier Musketeers Betting Pick
Now that we’ve looked at both teams let’s first go over the spread. As we mentioned above, the Musketeers come in as 1.5-point favorites. This essentially makes the game a pick ’em.
The total is set at 139, and UConn is +100 on the Moneyline. A very important thing to remember is that UConn is 2-0 ATS in their two games against Xavier.
This is one of the reasons that we’ll take UConn +100 on the Moneyline. Xavier has gone 2-7 against the spread in their last nine games.
We can’t trust a team with streaky scoring and bad play at the sportsbook. UConn is 6-2 in their last eight games, and we’d rather go with a more consistent group.
Betting Pick: UConn Huskies +100 Moneyline
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