The Week Ahead in The Big East Conference John Ryan JohnRyanSports1 January 21, 2020 Is the Big East a Great Conference? The rise of the Big East Conference and the Fall of the ACC Conference are two big surprises so far this season. Three of the 10 teams in the Big East are ranked with No. Seton Hall Pirates sitting atop the standings with a perfect 6-0 record and 14-4 overall record. In second place with a 4-1 record and 14-3 overall record are the Villanova Wildcats, and in fourth place are the No. 13 Butler Bulldogs with a 4-2 record and 15-03 overall record. The Big East has many teams worth for Top-25 consideration starting with the Providence Friars, who are in third place in the conference with a 4-2 record and 14-3 overall mark. Then there are the Creighton Blue jays, who are the sleeper team in the conference. All 10 teams in the conference have winning records with the St. Johns Red Storm having the worst, but darn good 12-7 overall record on the season. Which Teams Have Been the Best to Bet on? The Red Storm leads the conference with a sparkling 10-3-1 ATS record as the chart below illustrates. I like using these types of elementary analyses to look for potential betting opportunities for the week ahead. I like Villanova this week as they have significant potential upside and have yet to play their bets games. The Wildcats start the week by hosting the Butler Bulldogs and find themselves installed as 4.5-point favorite in this Tuesday night matchup. Next on tap for them is a visit to face the Providence Friars in what will be lined as a pick-em game. I do believe they will win and cover this pair of games for the week. On Wednesday, the Xavier Musketeers will host the Georgetown Hoyas in a ‘must win’ matchup for both teams since they do not want to fall further behind in the conference standings. I like the Musketeers in this matchup in which they will be a 5-point favorite over the visiting Hoyas. The ‘UNDER’ bet is quite attractive as well. The ‘UNDER’ has cashed on a 25-13 record good for 65% winning bets when Xavier has lost at least three consecutive games to the spread and has a winning record on the season in games played since 2006. Are the Pirates Vulnerable? The Pirates are 14-4 SU and 13-5 ATS and are not ‘overbought’ to use a Wall Street term. Many times, when a team outperforms and exceeds preseason expectations there is an ever-growing public betting bandwagon that gets on that team. In this case I believe the Pirates are not vulnerable to a losing streak but will go an even-record ATS at best over the next five games or so. The Pirates have a tough assignment when they take on the Providence Friars Wednesday. The good news is that it is a home game. This game is for first place on the conference standings. A Pirate win will begin to put a bit of separation from the rest of the field in the standings so, I expect a full throttle performance from them in this matchup and easily cover the spread. I expect this line to show the Pirates a 7.5-point home favorite. After this matchup with the Friars the Pirates will play the teams in the bottom-half of the standings and this is where they could get caught looking ahead to the big showdown on the road to face Villanova on February 8.
 

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