{"id":13861,"date":"2011-03-05T02:30:30","date_gmt":"2011-03-05T07:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13861"},"modified":"2011-03-05T10:14:10","modified_gmt":"2011-03-05T15:14:10","slug":"saturday-big-east-basketball-tv-picks-villanova-at-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/saturday-big-east-basketball-tv-picks-villanova-at-pittsburgh-13861\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Big East Basketball TV Picks: Villanova at Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Villanova Wildcats at Pittsburgh Panthers, Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, PA<\/strong>
\nSaturday, March 5, 2011, 4 pm Eastern, TV: CBS<\/strong>
\nOpening Line: Pitt -9.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line: Pitt -9<\/strong>
\nOpening Total: 134.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total: 134.5<\/strong>
\nMoney Line: Pitt -500 \/ Villanova +400
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Pittsburgh
Pitt's Brad Wannamaker will be one of three seniors honored Saturday as his team tries to clinch the top seed in the Big East tournament.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fourth-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers (26-4, 14-3 Big East) can clinch the top seed in the conference tournament and the regular-season title by completing a season sweep of the 19th-ranked Villanova Wildcats (21-9, 9-8) on Saturday.\u00a0 The Panthers (-9) can also accomplish that feat with a loss by #8 Notre Dame at Connecticut earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

The bigger news though is just how much Villanova has fallen as the team picked to finish second behind Pitt in the preseason.\u00a0 The Wildcats have lost three in a row and five of seven, failing to cover any of their past seven games along with 10 of 11.\u00a0 They had covered seven straight games earlier in the season and were ranked seventh in the country following an 11-game winning streak.<\/p>\n

All of that is history with questions now about how Villanova will perform in the postseason.\u00a0 Can the Wildcats forget their recent slide and turn things around in the Big East tournament?\u00a0 Perhaps, but they will likely need to go on a run without a bye after getting crushed 93-72 at Notre Dame on Monday.\u00a0 The Fighting Irish connected on a school-record 20 3-pointers and led by as many as 32 points, putting an exclamation point on a brutal stretch for Villanova.<\/p>\n

The Panthers contributed to those woes for the Wildcats with a 57-54 road win on February 12.\u00a0 They did so without leading scorer Ashton Gibbs, who missed three games with a sprained MCL in his knee.\u00a0 Instead, it was Brad Wanamaker who stepped up with a game-high 21 points.\u00a0 Wanamaker will be one of three seniors honored, contributing to one of Pittsburgh\u2019s most successful classes.\u00a0 The only thing missing is a trip to the Final Four.<\/p>\n

Wanamaker was on the Pitt team that lost to Villanova 78-76 in the 2009 NCAA tournament, as Scottie Reynolds hit the game-winning shot in the final seconds that prevented the Panthers from going to their first Final Four since 1941.\u00a0 That loss still stings and has helped motivate him and his teammates ever since.<\/p>\n

Three Wildcats also played in that game \u2013 seniors Antonio Pena, Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes.\u00a0 Fisher (toe) and Stokes (knee) have both nursed injuries this season, contributing to their shooting woes and the struggles of the team as a whole.\u00a0 In the previous two games before the loss to Notre Dame, Fisher had missed 22 of 26 shots from the field, including all 16 of his 3-point attempts.\u00a0 He bounced back by scoring 22 points against the Irish on 8 of 17 shooting.<\/p>\n

If you are betting this Big East college basketball game between Pitt & Villanova, make 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 Pittsburgh Panthers, Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, PA Saturday, March 5, 2011, 4 pm Eastern, TV: CBS Opening Line: Pitt -9.5 Current Line: Pitt -9 Opening Total: 134.5 Current Total: 134.5 Money Line: Pitt -500 \/ Villanova +400 The fourth-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers (26-4, 14-3 Big East) can clinch the top seed in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":9782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[4319,4381,3887,4316,4317,4318,606,4579,752],"class_list":["post-13861","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-pitt-panthers","tag-pittsburgh-villanova-preview","tag-villanova-wildcats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13861","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=13861"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13864,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13861\/revisions\/13864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}