4. (1) Baylor vs (5) Villanova
LINE: Baylor -7.5
ATS PICK: Baylor
– Bet on this, BetMGM latest line
Here’s the problem with the NCAA Tournament – and forgive the broken record rant from previous pieces.
The North Texas first round win over Purdue was cute and all, but whenever you get a monster early upset seed-wise, you know there’s a 84-61 game to come. And that’s exactly what Villanova was gifted in the second round.
These aren’t the national championship-level Wildcats of past years. It’s an okay team, but it came into the tournament on a run of four losses in the last seven games, got the Winthrop and North Texas free-space games to get here, and now comes a Baylor team that appears to have found its mojo at just the right time.
Hartford was a tune-up and Wisconsin isn’t great, but after getting down early against the Badgers, Baylor roared from there in an easy blowout win.
This is a high-powered Bear team that can score fast and in a variety of ways. Villanova is good defensively, but it hasn’t seen anything like this.
How many times this year did Baylor not win by eight or more?
Five times in 26 games.
So if you like Baylor to win, like the 7.5.