Providence Friars vs. West Virginia Mountaineers NCAA Lines
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Date/Time: Thursday, January 13, 7 PM ET
Venue: WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, WV
Broadcast: ESPN2
Providence Friars vs. West Virginia Mountaineers Betting Lines from JustBet.com
Money Line: Providence (+450) West Virginia (-600)
Spread: West Virginia -9.5
Over/Under: 152
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Providence Friars vs. West Virginia Mountaineers Preview
West Virginia (10-4) plays host to a struggling Providence (11-6) team tonight in a Big East match up. NCAA lines have West Virginia as big 9.5-point home favorites with a total of 152.
Providence has lost 4 straight and all 4 were conference games and in their last game they lost to Rutgers 85-72. West Virginia has won 2 in a row, and is 2-2 in the Big East, including upsetting, then, 13th ranked Georgetown 65-59 in their last game.
The Mountaineers have a better record than the Friars, but not a better betting record, as they are 4-7 ATS while Providence is 7-6 ATS.
Last season the Mountaineers killed the Friars in Providence 88-74.
In the first 3 Big East losses for the Friars they did not play badly only losing by a combined 13 points and they faced 2 teams ranked in the top 10 in Pittsburgh and Syracuse. However, in their last conference game they were killed by 13 points.
Both teams really need to win this game since the Big East currently has 7 teams that are ranked in the top 25. Even though it is still very early in the season if the Friars begin Big East play 0-5 it will be a major uphill battle to make it to the Big Dance.
West Virginia played good defense in their win over Georgetown and they will have to play good D tonight against the Friars, who rank 24th in the nation averaging 79.2 ppg. One the other side of the coin the Friars will have to score to win, as they do not have a good defensive team only ranking 227th in the nation giving up an average of 70.7 ppg.
Providence is led by G/F Marshon Brooks (23.8 ppg) and G Vincent Council (15.2 ppg). These 2 combined for 43 points in their loss to Rutgers, but neither shot the ball well, especially Council who was only 2/13 from the field. Overall, the Friars did not shoot the rock well in the game only shooting 30.8% and 27.3% from behind the 3-point line. If they shoot like that again tonight they will get killed.
G Casey Mitchell (17.6 ppg) is the leading scorer for West Virginia and he played stellar in the upset win over Georgetown going for 28 points and he hit 4 of his 7 3-point bombs. The Friars’ backcourt has to keep him from having a big game and from getting open looks from deep.
In the Georgetown game West Virginia did not have a great shooting game going 40.4% from the floor and the Hoyas shot over 50% from the field. However, the WVU defense forced the Hoyas into 18 turnovers. Providence has to be careful with the ball tonight and not make careless turnovers.
West Virginia is not a great rebounding team while Providence is ranking 25th in the nation in rebounds per game led by F/C Bilal Dixon (8.3 rpg) and Marshon Brooks (8 rpg). The frontcourt duo of West Virginia of Kevin Jones (6.4 rpg) and John Flowers (6.3 rpg) have to man up on the glass and not allow the Friars to dominate the boards.
West Virginia uses great ball movement ranking 26th in the nation in assists and the Friars have to get in the passing lanes and force some turnovers tonight for them to pull off the upset.
Providence will shoot much better than they did against Rutgers, but their defense will kill them tonight. The Mountaineers will win this game, but it will not be a blowout so Providence will cover the spread.
Betting Trends
Providence is 5-2-1 ATS in their last 8 road games and 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games and West Virginia is 2-7 ATS in their last 9 games and only 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games against teams in the Big East.
Pick: Providence +9.5
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