{"id":12669,"date":"2011-01-22T01:16:03","date_gmt":"2011-01-22T06:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12669"},"modified":"2011-01-22T10:58:57","modified_gmt":"2011-01-22T15:58:57","slug":"saturday-big-east-basketball-picks-villanova-at-syracuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/saturday-big-east-basketball-picks-villanova-at-syracuse-12669\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Big East Basketball Picks: Villanova at Syracuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Villanova Wildcats at Syracuse Orange, Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY
\nSaturday, January 22, 2011, 12:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN
\nOpening Line: Syracuse -5
\nCurrent Line: Syracuse -5.5
\nOpening Total: 139
\nCurrent Total: 141.5
\nMoney Line: Syracuse -240 \/ Villanova +200
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Syracuse
Syracuse leading scorer Kris Joseph is expected to return after missing Monday's loss at Pittsburgh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With Syracuse leading scorer Kris Joseph expected to be back on the court in front of another NCAA record crowd at the Carrier Dome, the third-ranked Orange (18-1, 5-1 Big East) hope to bounce back from their only loss of the season when they host the seventh-ranked Villanova Wildcats (16-2, 4-1) on Saturday.\u00a0 Joseph missed Monday\u2019s 74-66 loss at #5 Pittsburgh after banging his head on the floor in the first half of the team\u2019s 67-52 rout of Cincinnati last Saturday.\u00a0 But he will be needed as the Orange (-5) try to break last year\u2019s attendance mark of 34,616 fans.<\/p>\n

Losing to the Panthers may have been the first loss for Syracuse, but some could argue the team scored a moral victory after rallying back from an early 19-0 deficit with a 17-0 run minus Joseph, who had averaged 19.5 points in the first four conference games.\u00a0 The Orange hung tough for most of the game and saw freshmen C.J. Fair and Dion Waiters gain valuable experience despite playing in such a hostile environment.<\/p>\n

Fair and Waiters combined to score 25 points in the losing effort while senior forward Rick Jackson added 10 points and a team-high 11 rebounds.\u00a0 Jackson and junior point guard Scoop Jardine are both Philadelphia natives and will be extra motivated to face Villanova.\u00a0 The Philly duo totaled 35 points and 17 rebounds between them in last year\u2019s 95-77 rout of the Wildcats.<\/p>\n

Villanova trailed the last meeting 46-36 at halftime after winning the previous three meetings in the series and the past two head-to-head matchups at the Dome.\u00a0 The Wildcats are also 3-1 against the spread in the last four games between the teams and will take the court following a tough 61-59 loss at Connecticut on Monday.\u00a0 They failed to reach 60 points for the first time in 51 games and were led by a career-high 28 points from Corey Fisher.<\/p>\n

Leading scorer Corey Stokes was held to only three points for Villanova on 0-for-6 shooting from the field and saw UConn\u2019s Kemba Walker hit the game-winning shot with 2.5 seconds remaining.\u00a0 Fisher had tied the game with two free throws at the 25-second mark.\u00a0 Walker finished with a team-high 24 points for the Huskies, who snapped an 11-game winning streak for the Wildcats.<\/p>\n

Even with the loss, Villanova has covered its last six games overall with the UNDER cashing in three of the past four.\u00a0 The UNDER is also 4-2 in the last six games for Syracuse, although the last three meetings with the Wildcats have all been high-scoring game with the OVER cashing each time.\u00a0 In fact, the winner of the last six meetings has averaged over 89 points per game.<\/p>\n

If you are betting this Big East college basketball game between Syracuse & Villanova, be sure to check out the winning basketball picks packages we offer.\u00a0 You can also get free winners on our free NCAA basketball picks page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Villanova Wildcats at Syracuse Orange, Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY Saturday, January 22, 2011, 12:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN Opening Line: Syracuse -5 Current Line: Syracuse -5.5 Opening Total: 139 Current Total: 141.5 Money Line: Syracuse -240 \/ Villanova +200 With Syracuse leading scorer Kris Joseph expected to be back on the court in front of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":9771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[4319,4381,3887,4316,4317,4318,580,4380,752],"class_list":["post-12669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-east-basketball","tag-big-east-picks","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-free-college-basketball-pick","tag-ncaa-basketball-odds","tag-ncaa-hoops-picks","tag-syracuse-orange","tag-syracuse-villanova-preview","tag-villanova-wildcats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12669"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12671,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669\/revisions\/12671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}