The Wisconsin Badgers and the Villanova Wildcats face off in what has been dubbed the Milwaukee Hoops Showdown. Both teams are looking for their first real signature win. Each team has had two opportunities at a Quad-1 win, and both have failed. The Badgers have been able to get at least one Quad-2 win, but Villanova hasn't even had an opportunity.
For the Wildcats, this is a Quad-2 opponent in Wisconsin as the Badgers are NET 68. Yet, for Wisconsin, this could be their first Quad-1 win with Villanova being a NET 36 and on a "neutral" court.
Here's the final odds and predictions for tonight's matchup at the Fiserv Forum at 7pm on FOX.
Final Odds for Wisconsin vs. Villanova: 4.5 Wisconsin
FanDuel has the final odds resting at 4.5 in favor of the Badgers. There's a little stock given to the idea that it will be more of a homecourt advantage for Wisconsin, as the "neutral" court is in Milwaukee.
The over/under is at 150.5 and the money line is +180 for Villanova and -220 for Wisconsin.
If you use the Vegas spread and over/under, you can get to a final score prediction for the game based purely on Vegas odds. The prediction from Vegas comes in somewhere around 78–73 in favor of the Badgers. That's technically the over, so it could be 77-73 if you prefer the under.
Final score prediction: Wisconsin 82 Villanova 79
Wisconsin is a hard team to predict this year because when they win, they often do it in convincing fashion. When they lose, it looks like the JV team showed up for the varsity. It's an all-or-nothing affair so far. They've yet to have a game come down to single digits in the spread. The closest game was an 11-point difference in the loss to TCU.
However, I do think the firepower gets going, and we see some semblance of defense. This could be the first game of the season that comes down to the final minute.