Providence vs Xavier Expert Pick

As the regular season winds down and we get ever closer to March Madness, we still have a number of great match-ups to look forward to before the Tournament gets underway. There is a great battle in the Big East scheduled for Wednesday, February 17, as the Providence Friars have to head into Cincinnati to face the Xavier Musketeers. The full odds and lines for this match will be up at our MyBookie.ag NCAAB betting page as soon as they become available.

How to bet Providence Friars Vs Xavier Musketeers TV and Game Info

When: Wednesday, February 17, 2016Where: Cintas Center, Cincinnati, OhioTV: FS1This might well be the match-up of the day, as a pair of ranked teams from the super competitive Big East Conference go head to head. Xavier are likely to be the favorites for this one given their current form and home court advantage, but they know that they are going to be in for a battle against a tough Providence Friars team.

Why bet on the Providence Friars

The last few weeks not been kind to the Providence Friars (19-7, 7-6), as they have gone through a stretch of games that has seen them lose 4 of their last 6. A pair of those losses came at the hands of ranked opponents, including a 75-68 loss at home to Xavier. While that run is certainly a major bump in the road, it is not a true indication of how well this team has played for the majority of the season. Before this less than spectacular run, the Friars had knocked off 4 of the last 5 ranked opponents that they had faced, with the only loss coming to Michigan State. Two of those signature wins, verbs Butler and Villanova, came on the road, proving that they can win in hostile territory. The Friars are averaging 74.1 PPG, and are giving up 69.3 PPG.

Why bet in the Xavier Musketeers

Xavier (22-3, 10-3) came into conference play unbeaten, and while they have lost 3 games against Big East opponents, they have still done more than enough to be worthy of their #8 national ranking. They did drop a game on the road at Creighton last week, but managed to bounce back from that quite nicely with a totally dominating win over the Butler Bulldogs. The Musketeers have been a tough nut to crack at home this season, and the Georgetown Hoyas have been the only road team able to get any joy at the Cintas Center. As mentioned earlier, the Musketeers came away with a 75-68 win on the road when they faced the Friars earlier in the year. That should give them more than enough confidence to complete the double at home. Xavier are averaging 79.5 PPG, and are giving up 68.2 PPG.

Expert Pick and Final Score Prediction

This would probably have been a more exciting match-up were it not for the fact that the Friars have been off their game in the past couple of weeks. I think that Xavier are going to rub some salt in the wounds with a pretty comfortable victory.Providence Friars 68 Xavier Wildcats 79