No. 4 Xavier Musketeers and DePaul Blue Demons will conclude their regular season campaigns in Chicago this Saturday with both teams hoping to springboard off a victory before plunging towards the Big East tournament. Read on for a preview of this matchup. Register to bet and wager with your pick.
Betting Preview for the Xavier Musketeers vs DePaul Blue Demons College Basketball Game on March 3, 2018
Where: Wintrust Arena
When: Saturday, March 3, 12:00PM EST
Line: Xavier Musketeers () vs DePaul Blue Demons ()–view all NCAA Basketball lines
TV Broadcast: ESPN
Betting on the Xavier Musketeers (26-4)
The Musketeers will play their last regular season game in enemy territory – in Chicago to be exact. Although Xavier is definitely the favorite against the Blue Demons, it can’t be overly confident, since the Musketeers barely survived DePaul in the first meeting. DePaul had a lead as big as 16 points in a 77-72 road loss to Xavier on Dec. 30. Xavier shot poorly in that game, connecting on just 42.2 percent of its shots in that game, though most of the X-Men’s struggles were in the first half. They turned it around in the second half, in which they outscored DePaul, 46-33. On the season, Xavier is 12th in the nation with a 49.8 field goal shooting percentage as of this writing and fifth with an 85.2 points per game average. J.P. Macura and Trevon Bluiett combined for 35 points in the win over DePaul. Xavier is coming off a nice win over Providence at home on Wednesday, 84-74, with Bluiett scoring 23 points to help the Musketeers win Big East regular season title.
Betting on the DePaul Blue Demons (11-18)
Well, yeah. DePaul has a tall task ahead of it against Xavier, but if anything, the Blue Demons can draw confidence from the fact that they gave the Musketeers a run for their money. DePaul could’ve actually upset Xavier in that game had they not went buck-wild in turning the ball over. The Blue Demons had 23 errors in that game. No team would be able to win a game, let alone against a team like Xavier, if they cough the ball up that many times. Whether it was because of Xavier’s tight defense or not, DePaul has to fix that issue because the Musketeers are one of the last teams any squad would want to take advantage of their mishaps. DePaul, however, was led in that game by Max Strus, who burned the Musketeers with 33 points on 10-for-18 shooting from the field with six three-pointers. Strus tops the Blue Demons with 17.1 points per game. He also scored 21 points in last week’s loss to No. 3 Villanova. He could score, but he also needs help from the likes of Marin Maric (13.9 PPG) and Eli Cain (11.7). Maric and Cain only had a total of nine points together in the first meeting with Xavier.
Writer’s Prediction
Xavier wins, 83-71.
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