Villanova goes hunting for its 11th consecutive victory against crosstown rival Temple on Wednesday. The top-ranked Wildcats have been on a roll, but they will have their hands full against a feisty Owls squad in a nationally televised matchup (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2).
Led by a pair of junior guards in Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson, Nova has been crushing its opponents by a whopping 22.3 points a game. Freshman forward Omari Spellman is a defensive beast, averaging nearly two blocks.
The Wildcats are 8.5-point favorites, up from a 7-point open. The over-under, or total number of points Vegas thinks will be scored, is 150.
Before picking either side, you need to hear what the SportsLine Projection Model has to say. This model, which simulates every game 10,000 times, completely crushed its college basketball selections during the 2016-17 season, returning a massive profit of $6,529 on $100 bets for anybody who followed them.
Now, the model has examined every matchup, every player and every trend in Villanova-Temple and locked in against-the-spread and over-under picks.
We can tell you that the computer has the under winning 79 percent of simulations, making the total points pick a solid one. It also has a very strong pick for one side of the spread.
The Wildcats are coming off a 77-68 victory against La Salle, a game they trailed at halftime. Phil Booth and Donte DiVincenzo each scored 18 points to lead Nova.
On Saturday, Temple held off Saint Joseph's 81-78 to improve to 6-2. Junior guard Shizz Alston was the top scorer for the Owls with 20.
Bridges leads Villanova in scoring at 18.1 points. He is also pulling down 6.4 rebounds with 2.1 steals. Brunson nets 17.2 points and 4.8 assists. He also shoots a remarkable 52 percent from 3-point range.
Alston is tops on the Owls with 17.3 points and shoots 54 percent from beyond the arc. He's also a 96 percent free-throw shooter.
Does Villanova make it a perfect 11-0, or will Temple pull off the huge upset? The SportsLine Projection Model's picks are in.
So what side of Nova-Temple do you need to be all over? Visit SportsLine now to see the strong point-spread pick for Wildcats-Owls, all from the model that has absolutely crushed college hoops, and find out.
