College Hoops Picks ATS—Feb. 19: Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Villanova Wildcats

Columnist Written on February 18, 2009

Rutgers Scarlet Knights (1-11, 10-15) at Villanova Wildcats (8-4, 20-5)

Thursday, Feb. 19—9 p.m. EST on ESPN/ESPN2

Preview

Villanova (8-4, 20-5) is coming off its first loss in seven games—a 93-72 loss to West Virginia. During that stretch, they scored 100 points in back-to-back games for the first time in the history of their program, and in their six wins they outscored opponents by an average of 13 points.

Rutgers (1-11, 10-15) has been an absolute disappointment this season. They have one win in conference play (over the winless DePaul Blue Demons) and currently sit in 15th in the Big East.

Their star is freshman guard Mike Rosario, but it has become clear that the team needs more than one player in order to be successful.

Villanova is doing everything they can to keep themselves competitive for the regular season title, and to try and break into the top four of the Big East so they can have the coveted double-bye in the conference tournament.

There are four teams ahead of them (all with only two Big East losses). The only way they can break into the top four is by winning convincingly for the rest of the season—they only face one ranked team (Syracuse) in their last six games.

By The Numbers

	Record	Conf	ATS	RPI	SOS	PF	PA
Rutgers	10-15	1-11	11-8	171	76	65.1	66.4
Villanova	20-5	8-4	12-8	10	18	76.9	65.6

	FG%	D. FG%	3P%	D. 3P%	FT%	RPG	SPG	APG	TPG
Rutgers	42.5	41.6	30.0	29.5	71.9	39.4	5.8	11.3	15.4
Villanova	46.2	39.5	36.0	33.2	73.6	41.0	7.4	14.7	13.3

Stats Leaders

	Rutgers	Villanova
PPG	M. Rosario - 17.0	D. Cunningham - 16.6
	A. Farmer - 9.1	S. Reynolds - 15.2
	G. Echenique - 8.9	C. Fisher - 10.9
RPG	G. Echenique - 8.3	D. Cunningham - 7.2
APG	A. Farmer - 2.8	S. Reynolds - 3.7
SPG	M. Rosario - 1.0	D. Cunningham - 1.6
BPG	H. N'Diaye - 2.5	D. Cunningham - 1.3

Prediction

To see Ryan's final analysis and prediction, please head over to CBBPlace.com!

See thousands of free College Basketball Picks Against the Spread this season.

All statistics for this article have come from StatSheet.com.

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written on February 18, 2009 Preview/Prediction

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College Hoops Picks ATS—Feb. 19: Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Villanova Wildcats

Ryan Brennan

Rutgers Scarlet Knights (1-11, 10-15) at Villanova Wildcats (8-4, 20-5)