Villanova Wildcats at Syracuse Orange Betting Odds

Opening Line: Villanova +5 / Syracuse -5 O/U 160.5

Time: 9 PM EST Saturday February 27, 2010 on ESPN

Tonight in a HUGE Big East match up the 4th ranked Syracuse Orange host the 8th ranked Villanova Wildcats. Huge may be an understatement, as the winner of this game will win the Big East and the game will be in front of the biggest on-campus crowd in college hoops history. There is an expected crowd of 34,616 tonight in the Carrier Dome.

This is the 6th game in the Big East between 2 teams ranked in the top 10 and Syracuse and Villanova have been part of every game with the Orange going 3-0 and the Wildcats going 1-1.

This season Syracuse is 15-2 at home and 17-7 ATS and Villanova is 7-3 on the road and 17-9 ATS.

There should be plenty of offense in this game, as each rank in the top 7 in the nation in scoring per game. The Orange lead the nation in team FG% (52%). In an interesting fact the team from a major conference that leads the nation in team FG% has won 4 of the last 5 National Championships.

Villanova snapped their 2-game losing streak in their last game crushing South Florida 74-49 on Wednesday night while the Orange beat Providence 99-85 in their last game on Tuesday night.

This is a match up of contrasting teams, as the Orange are led by their frontcourt and the Wildcats are led by their backcourt.

Syracuse has 4 forwards averaging in double figures led by Wesley Johnson (15.8 ppg) and Villanova's 2 leading scorers are the guards of Scottie Reynolds (19 ppg) and Corey Fisher (13.8 ppg).

Villanova has to play solid team defense, especially in the lane, while Syracuse has to play good perimeter defense and not allow the Wildcats to bomb away from deep.

The Wildcats' forwards of Antonio Pena (11 ppg 7.5 rpg) and Taylor King (7.9 ppg 5.7 rpg) have a tough task in this game, as they have to keep the frontcourt of the Orange from scoring a ton of points in the paint and dominating the boards.

Villanova has won 2 straight games over Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.

Villanova is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 road games, 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games, and has an Over record of 5-1 in their last 6 road games.

Syracuse is 6-0 ATS in their last 6 home games against teams with a winning road record, 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games as a home favorite of 0.5-6.5, and has an Under record of 4-0 in their last 4 home games.

In the last 6 meetings between these 2 teams the underdogs is 5-1 ATS.