St. Mary's vs. Villanova 2010 NCAA Bracket Predictions: Saturday's 2010 NCAA Tournament action gets started with a great looking 3/10 matchup at Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, R.I. (1 pm Eastern) between the Villanova Wildcats of the Big East Conference and St. Mary's Gaels of the West Coast Conference. The winner of today's game will move on to the South Regional Semi-Finals at Houston March 25-26.
NCAA Tournament oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com list Villanova as 4 1/2-chalk favorites versus St. Mary's with a 153 total. Gaels backers are getting +165 odds on the Sportsbook moneyline while the Wildcats are giving -190.
On Thursday, March 18, St. Mary's advanced to the round of 32 by whipping 7-seed Richmond in convincing fashion 80-71 while Villanova narrowly escaped its battle with Robert Morris 73-70.
Omar Samhan drained 29 points with 11 rebounds for a double-double in leading St. Mary's to the win. St. Mary's won the game as 1 1/2-point underdogs, while the 151 points made it OVER the posted total of 136. Mickey McConnell added 23 points for St. Mary's, and Clint Steindl chipped in with 11 points in that win.
Villanova clawed its way back in the second half to pull out its win over Robert Morris. The Wildcats could not cover the 16 1/2-point spread, and the combined score went UNDER the day's posted total of 146. Scottie Reynolds poured in 20 points, while Mouphtaou Yarou added 17 points and eight rebounds in that win.
Prior to the win over Robert Morris, Villanova had seemed to have bottomed out losing its last 5-of-7 games. Meanwhile, St. Mary's has won six straight games including an impressive 81-62 beat-down of 22nd ranked Gonzaga in the WCC tournament on March 8.
Early betting trends show the public firmly backing Villanova on 66 percent of side betts and 68 percent taking the Wilcats on the Sportsbook moneyline. Tournament betting is favoring the OVER on the posted 153 total.
NCAA Bracket Predictions: Villanova could have problems with Gaels Center Omar Samhan, a deadly scorer in the paint whose bulk makes him hard to handle. We like St.Marys to cover the 5-point chalk in this game.
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