College Basketball Picks: Villanova Wildcats vs. Louisville Cardinals

The Louisville Cardinals are 11-2 against the spread in their last 13 neutral-site games, which is important to consider when making your college basketball picks on Thursday night, as they will meet the Villanova Wildcats at Madison Square Garden on ESPN.

Sports bettors will find that the Cardinals are 9.5-point favorites in the NCAA basketball odds (courtesy of SBR Forum), while the total sits at 124.5 in the market.

Let's take a closer look at this Big East Conference tournament game from a betting perspective, while offering up an against-the-spread pick along the way.

Villanova Wildcats

The Villanova Wildcats are coming off a 66-53 victory over the St. John's Red Storm as 4.5-point favorites on Wednesday night, when they went UNDER the total of 126.

Sports bettors will find that the Wildcats are 5-11 against the spread in their last 16 neutral-site games.

Louisville Cardinals

The Louisville Cardinals have won seven games in a row by an average margin of 15.4 points. They are coming off a 73-57 victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as 11-point home favorites last Saturday.

Over the last two-plus seasons, the Cardinals are 15-3-1 against the spread in March, with the UNDER going 14-5 in that situation.

Prediction

I'm going to recommend that readers back the Villanova Wildcats as one of their sports betting picks on Thursday night, as I established the Louisville Cardinals as 6.5-point favorites in this matchup. 

College Basketball Pick: Villanova Wildcats +9.5

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