It’s the unranked Wisconsin Badgers vs. No. 9 Xavier Musketeers at the Scottrade Center St. Louis, Missouri on 3/20/2016 at 8:40 PM. The betting line on this game opened with Xavier a -5 betting favorite and a total line of 136 points.
Wisconsin scored only 16 points in the first half but overcame a six-point deficit to get the 47-43 win over Pittsburgh as a small one-point underdog. The victory broke off a mini two game losing streak straight up and against the spread and edged the Badgers’ against the spread record to over .500 (17-16 ATS on the season). The low total of 90 points put on the board by the two clubs fell 40.5 points UNDER the O/U line for Wisconsin’s eighth such outcome in their last ten matches
In their opening tournament game Xavier opened up an 11 -point first half lead and never looked back in a 71-53 romp over Weber State. The 18-point winning margin sent their backer’s to cash their tickets covering the -13 spread odds. The ATS win was the Musketeers 20th on the season to go with 13 losses. The 124 points put on the board came up well short of the closing total line for Xavier’s first UNDER after stringing together seven straight OVERS.
These two teams met last in the 2009 NCAA Tournament where Xavier beat Wisconsin 60-49. In the game the Musketeers covered the -2.5 spread and the total went UNDER.
Wisconsin ranks 267th in the nation averaging 68.9 PPG and 26th in allowing 64.6 PPG. Previous to the win against Pittsburgh in the first round of the NCAA Tournament the Badgers had lost two in a row. In the Pittsburgh game the Badgers outscored the Panthers by 10 points in the 2nd half and while they did not have a good shooting game they held Pitt to a FG% of 37.5%.
Xavier ranks 18th in the nation in scoring (81.3 PPG) and 153rd in opponents’ points allowed (71 PPG). In their win over Weber State in their last game the Musketeers outscored the Wildcats by 11 points in the first half and for the game they were solid on both ends of the floor with a FG% of 48.4% and they held Weber State to a FG% of 38.6%.
Wisconsin: 84.35
Xavier: 88.63
- WISC is 11-4 ATS in their last 15 games overall.
- WISC is 0-5 ATS in their last 5 vs. Big East.
- WISC has an Under record of 9-1 in their last 10 games.
- XAV is 36-16 ATS in their last 52 non-conference games.
- XAV is 20-9 ATS in their last 29 games vs. a team with a winning straight up record.
- XAV has an Over record of 7-1 in their last 8 games.
On the season Wisconsin has an O/U record of 14-19 and Xavier has an O/U record of 21-12.
This season in games held at a neutral site Wisconsin is 2-2 and Xavier is 5-1.