Butler vs. Villanova NCAA Basketball Preview and Best Bet (Archive)
The Villanova Wildcats will look to extend their winning streak to six with a win against Butler at home, today at noon.
Will they be able to pull it off? Let’s break down the NCAAB odds for this matchup.
Butler Bulldogs vs. Villanova Wildcats
Sunday, January 16, 2022 – 12:00 PM EST at Wells Fargo Center
Betting Preview
The Villanova Wildcats have won five straight games including two games against Xavier and a few games against Seton Hall, Creighton, and DePaul. The Wildcats look unstoppable and will now take on a Butler Bulldogs team that already has six losses this season.
Butler ultimately won against a bad Georgetown team but the Bulldogs have a lot of work to do. Butler is shooting an effective field goal percentage of 48.3 percent while turning the ball over 20.2 percent of the time.
The Bulldogs continue to shoot many threes but have only hit 30.9 percent of them this season. It’s going to be difficult to shoot those threes against Villanova, knowing the Wildcats have held opponents to 30 percent on the season from long range.
Betting Prediction
Butler has hit 50 percent of shots inside but also hit under 70 percent from the foul line. The foul line is an area where the Bulldogs can get to at a high rate, but Villanova has limited foul shots against opponents. Butler likely won’t be getting many calls, especially on the road.
The Bulldogs will also struggle to get offensive rebounds as they’ve earned just 27.5 percent on the season.
On the other hand, Villanova is a top 10 offense according to KenPom. The Wildcats are shooting an effective field goal percentage of 50.8 percent while limiting turnovers to 14.5 percent on the season.
While Butler has done well limiting offensive rebounds, Villanova is going to be a real challenge on the glass. The Wildcats have earned 32.5 percent offensive rebounds and should continue to get second chances in this game.
Ultimately, Villanova will end up with more offensive rebounds when this game is over. Villanova has also hit 35% of threes and 49.4 percent of shots inside.
However, Butler has been awful at defending inside, allowing opponents to shoot 51.6 percent this season. Don’t be surprised if Villanova plays a little inside-out basketball today.
The Wildcats have also hit 80.8 percent foul shots and Butler has been fouling at an above-average rate. So we’ll see Villanova at the line at a solid rate today and that won’t help Butler’s case either.
Expert Pick
Butler’s offense can’t keep up with Villanova. On the road, it’s going to be even more difficult. Butler has been run out of buildings plenty of times this year and this spot seems like another one where Villanova can with by at least 20 in this game.
The Wildcats have been absolutely dominant recently and just won an extremely hard road game against Xavier. Villanova got out to a healthy lead but eventually, the game got tighter.
If Villanova gets out to a big lead, Butler doesn’t have the offense to come back like Xavier. So give me Villanova -15 here for my NCAA pick this afternoon.
NCAAB Pick: Villanova -15 (-110) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.