Free NIT Final 4 Hoops Pick: Bonnies vs. Xavier CBB Odds
Looking for St. Bonaventure Bonnies vs. Xavier Musketeers NCAA basketball free picks & CBB odds? CBB betting sees the Bonnies taking on the Musketeers on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, at MSG in NYC. Cappers Picks provides complimentary expert handicapping picks on all NCAA Tournament matchups so stay tuned for more FREE daily NCAA basketball predictions like this Bonnies Musketeers matchup.
2022 NIT Final Four Basketball Handicapping
(23-9) St. Bonaventure Bonnies vs. Xavier Musketeers (21-13)
Date: Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Time: 7:00 PM ET
Venue: Madison Square Garden
CBB Moneyline Odds: Bonnies -118 / Xavier +108
CBB Betting ATS Odds: Bonnies -1.5 / Musketeers +1.5 (Bet Now!)
CBB Betting Total: O/U 140
Welcome to the Big Apple, baby! If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere and one of these programs will go on to play in the NIT Championship game on Thursday here at MSG. The most iconic sports venue in the world will welcome St. Bonaventure and Xavier to compete in one of the two NIT Semifinal affairs taking place on Tuesday night.
Washington State and Texas A&M will meet for the second semifinal game of the night at the Garden with the tip-off at about 9:30 p.m. This game is being telecast on ESPN and the second game of the night game can be seen on ESPN 2.
The Bonnies have gotten past Colorado, Oklahoma, and Virginia to reach the NIT Final Four and they’ve been the underdog in all 3 affairs. For all of you favorite bettors out there, learn this and get it now. Just because the fucking line setters tell you who is the favorite, that in NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM mean that they are the better team! Of course, now the oddsmakers slap a -1.5 on the Bonnies so they can’t be the surprise of the NIT anymore.
Xavier has been favored for 2 of their 3 NIT games and what a shocker… Xavier has covered once and you are 5 – 1 if you have played the dog in the 6 combined Bonnies and Musketeers games in the post-season.
St. Bonaventure Bonnies
So, now they have to play the role of the favorites and that is the last thing anyone wants to see. The Bonnies have relished the underdog role because everyone loves to hear what they can’t do only to go out and shut everyone up (See St. Peters in the NCAA Tourney if you need any examples)
The Bonnies have certainly been tested by better teams in this year’s NIT than that of what Xavier has seen to this point of the event. On top of that, the Bonnies were playing their best basketball down the stretch of the regular season and into their conference tourney as well. St. Bonaventure won 8 of their last 10 games going into the NIT and now they are 3 – 0 on the road against some relatively decent programs. Sure, everyone here in this tourney felt the disappointment of not making the big dance but the Bonnies have welcomed themselves and been rude guests to get here.
Did you see how this team got past Virginia? I mean talk about excitement! Kyle Lofton buries two free throws to give the Bonnies a 52 – 51 lead and then the big block from Osun Osunniyi to put the stamp on the win as Virginia took the last shot of the game hoping to be here in New York.
Amazingly, only 1 player came off the bench for St. Bonaventure and this program is like about 300 other outfits this year with no depth to speak of whatsoever. Osunniyi is playing the final games of his senior season and he is the only starter who saw any time off the court as the other 4 players all played the entire 40 minutes of the game.
All 5 starters average double-digits and Abdoul Karim Coulibaly will be the only player you see come off the bench, likely only to be relieving Osunniyi again. Jalen Adaway leads the team taking in just under 16 PPG and you see in the stats that this team rebounds and makes their free throws when they get to the line.
Xavier Musketeers
Xavier was a complete mess to end the regular season and then suddenly they just caught the right teams at the right time to land in the NIT semifinals. The Musketeers barely escaped with a win over Cleveland State to even get to their second game which they easily got past the Florida Gators, 72 – 56.
Speaking of lack of depth, Xavier is just another program in the land with minimal output from the subs off the pine. In the win over Vandy to reach the NIT semifinals, Zach Freemantle basically provided all of the production from the bench with 16 points and the 6 rebounds sure came in handy as well.
Jack Nunge leads the Musketeers finding his way to 13.3 PPG but the loss of Paul Scruggs takes the second-leading scorer off the floor tonight. Scruggs was averaging 11.7 PPG before he went down against Florida tearing his ACL, so that certainly leaves the Musketeers short without their starting guard.
Xavier still starts 4 guards as Nunge is the only forward in the rotation until Freemantle comes on in relief. Overall, we can expect a similar situation in bench production from both programs. And it ain’t much!
CBB Betting Trends:
- Bonnies are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall.
- Bonnies are 20-8 ATS in their last 28 neutral site games as a favorite.
- Musketeers are 1-6 ATS in their last 7 neutral site games.
- Musketeers are 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games overall.
- The favorite is 10-4-1 ATS in the last 15 meetings.
Free St. Bonaventure Bonnies vs. Xavier Musketeers NCAAB Betting Prediction:
Damnit, I loved paying the Bonnies as the dog but now we have to turn around and change it up. I am not one to play favs as many of you know from seeing my articles. I am the biggest thinkdog dude you have ever met in your life, period!
But, in this case, I have to stick to what I think the Bonnies can do and that is doing enough to win basketball games. Depth is shit for both teams so that is a push. I take the Bonnies to win and we only have to hope they can cover a bucket and win by 2.
4* Free CBB Betting Pick: Bonnies -1.5
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