Delaware Blue Hens vs Villanova Wildcats Point Spread Picks

Delaware stormed to a Colonial Athletic Association title by focusing on defense allowing 56, 55, and 56 points. That's not surprising as during the season the Blue Hens were fourth in points allowed, second in field goal shooting defense (.428). Delaware is 15-6 ATS on neutral courts, 22-10 ATS after playing a game away from home, while coach John Ingelsby is 15-6 ATS in tournament games. Villanova has a losing spread mark this season on neutral courts. They come off a 54-48 loss to Creighton and are 2-8 ATS after a combined score of 125 points or fewer. Villanova also hasn't run teams off the court in the opening round of the Big Dance the last two times, beating No. 12 seed Winthrop (73-63) and No. 11 seed Saint Mary's (61-57). Play Delaware.

Villanova has a deep, talented team that is running and gunning again, unbeaten while averaging 73.4 points per game. 6-7 JayVaughn Pinkston had the go-ahead basket and game-saving block in the final minute to lift the 12th-ranked Wildcats over No. 19 Michigan 60-55 in the Legends Classic championship game Tuesday night. Tournament MVP Dylan Ennis led Villanova with 15 points while Pinkston finished with eight points and nine rebounds. The Wildcats are 16-5 ATS in their last 21 non-conference games. They face a winless Delaware squad that shoots 29% from the field and averages 53.5 points! The Blue Hens are 0-3-1 ATS in their last four road games. Play Villanova.

Delaware had a good season a year ago, as they have a pair of strong players in Devon Saddler and Jarvis Threatt. The problem they face hasn't shown itself yet, as they have gotten adequate complimentary scoring from new players, but they lost a lot of the help they had last season. That hasn't shown up yet because they have had three easy games where they scored at will, but the telling game was vs. Richmond where they scored just 69 points. They will have similar issues vs. Villanova here who has the talent to make life difficult for the two strong Delaware scorers. Nova has allowed 54 points per game in their first three, and aren't the type of team that scores big. Delaware is 8-1 to the UNDER in their last nine outside the conference. This one doesn't get there, so play on the UNDER.