Villanova vs. Butler Pick Center

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SPREAD

TOTAL

Villanova

+127

+3
(-115)

O 130.5
(-106)

Butler

-149

-3
(-102)

U 130.5
(-114)

NCAAB

FINAL (2/5/2020)

Feb 04, 2020Villanova will attempt to respond from a 15-point home loss to Creighton when it travels to No. 19 Butler on Wednesday.The No. 10-ranked Wildcats fell 76-61 to the Bluejays on Saturday but still enter Wednesday's matchup with an impressive record of 17-4 overall and 7-2 in the Big East."I've been saying this all year: Every game in this league is going to be a battle. If you don't play your best, you're going to get beat," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "We weren't that bad. They just really played well. We've said this when we've won some games."We're still a team that's learning and growing. Creighton just played an all-around better basketball game than us. They did a great job defensively and hit big, timely shots." Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore paced the Wildcats with 18 points each. But the team made just 7 of 26 shots from beyond the arc, which ultimately cost the Wildcats.Villanova, which defeated Butler 76-61 on Jan. 21, will look for a regular-season sweep.After a tough home loss for Villanova, the challenge to win at Butler just became more daunting."I'm not happy with the way we played, but I've got to give them more credit than I'm disappointed in us," Wright said.Junior Jermaine Samuels continues to be bothered by a left foot sprain in the rugged Big East."He's coming back in a good fashion; just a little stiffness he's going to have to play through," Wright told Inquirer.com. "But it's just part of coming back from this type of injury. Can't hurt it." In its most recent game, Butler was beaten at home by Providence, 65-61, on Saturday. Still, the Bulldogs enter this game with a record of 17-5 overall and 5-4 in the conference.Without starting point guard Aaron Thompson for a third consecutive game, the Bulldogs looked out of sync on offense, going 1 of 14 on 3-pointers."We didn't shoot it well, but Providence had a lot to do with that. They made it really tough to get our guys open," Butler coach LaVall Jordan said. "We let (Luwane) Pipkins get loose for too many looks, and he made us pay. This is life in the Big East. You're across from a good team every night. We need to come back to practice with a sense of urgency and an attention to detail with another great team coming in here Wednesday night (Villanova)." Kamar Baldwin paced Butler with 14 points, five rebounds and five assists and continued to perform at a high level. But Providence was keying on Butler and forcing the ball out of Baldwin's hands. Look for a similar defensive strategy by Villanova."I thought they were just taking away Kamar," Bryce Nze told the Indianapolis Star after scoring 12 points against the Friars. "Taking away a lot of passes, denying passes. And that's on me. I gotta dribble-post, take care of the ball better. So I'm gonna fix that, work on that." --Field Level Media