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Posted at 1:15 PM EST.

8:00 PM EST. The defending national champions are in a slump after three straight defeats to Xavier, Georgetown and Saint John's by scores of 66-54, 85-73 and 71-65 respectively. The Wildcats were the betting favorite in every one of those games, but they were also the road team proving once again that it's much harder to win on the road than it is at home. 'Nova is actually on a 1-4 run when you include its 66-65 loss to this Marquette team on February 9 in Milwaukee.

The Golden Eagles have now won four in a row with that victory over Villanova propelling them on this run. Marquette is currently ranked in the top 10 and sit two games up on the Wildcats in the Big East standings. Everything's coming up Golden Eagles, which is why they are going to be such an appealing bet today taking back what looks like a considerable pile of points considering recent circumstances. However, the oddsmakers made Villanova the betting favorite here for a damn good reason. This line is screaming at us to back the Wildcats and we're going to listen. Sometimes playing the price is more important that the teams and this is one of those times.

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