The Musketeers and Blue Demons get set to get it on tonight.
How to watch DePaul vs. Xavier
Time: 9 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Watch Online: Fox Sports App
Betting Odds
(via DraftKings Sportsbook)
Spread: Xavier -8 | DePaul +8
Total: 149
Moneyline: Xavier -320 | DePaul +250
The Xavier Musketeers and DePaul Blue Demons are primed for a Wednesday night Big East clash. The 13-3 Musketeers are on the heels of an 80-73 win over Creighton this past Saturday. The Blue Demons, meanwhile, were successful in their last game as well. Their 96-92 win over Seton Hall snapped a five-game losing streak that put them in the pit of the Big East standings. Xavier is 3-2 on the Big East season and thanks to the ebbs and flows of this CBB season, are one game back in the loss column in the Big East standings… but still trail ‘Nova, who is 6-1.
Xavier holds a pretty decent advantage over DePaul but the Blue Demons have one thing going for them. That’s that Xavier has been pretty porous on the road this year. The Musketeers’ Avg. Scoring Margin of -0.6 on the road is pretty dismal. By comparison, they stand at +17.9 in home games this season. That’s a pretty big swing in things!
DePaul might rank 79th overall in Avg. Scoring Margin, but they have a really solid +9.1 scoring margin in home games this season. So the Blue Demons are going to have to hope to continue to hold serve on their home court. Their key will be to hope to not get shellacked at home as they did in their first two Big East matchups. The Blue Demons fell 70-53 to Providence on New Year’s Day and then 79-64 to Villanova on January 8.
What could well plague DePaul is the status of Javon Freeman-Liberty. Freeman-Liberty is a game-time decision according to DePaul’s head coach, Tony Stubblefield. As he averages over 21 points per game, he’s a big contributing factor! And he’ll be useful for DePaul if they want to upset the Musketeers tonight.
For Xavier, I look to sophomore Colby Jones. Jones scored 16 points in Xavier’s win over Creighton and played tremendously in a lot of areas. He also recorded nine rebounds, two assists, two steals, and zero turnovers in 31 minutes of action. He was named KenPom’s MVP of the game and a similar showing could lead Xavier to victory Wednesday night in Chicago.