The Providence Friars and Virginia Tech Hokies will play in a power conference matchup in college basketball on Saturday. Both teams are 1-0 to start the season and will try to stay unbeaten heading into next week's games. Here, I have broken down this non-conference contest in college basketball. My Providence vs Virginia Tech prediction is below for the Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off.
Pick: Providence Moneyline
Confidence: ★★★☆☆
Virginia Tech opened strongly with a 98-67 win over the Charleston Southern Buccaneers, pulling away in the second half and dominating the boards. Tobi Lawal had 20 points and 12 rebounds and Amani Hansberry chipped in 19 and 13. The Hokies outrebounded the Bucs 54-41 and committed only seven turnovers. They will try to produce similar numbers in their first real test of the year here.
Providence also opened its season with a win, defeating the Holy Cross Crusaders 89-79. Freshman Stefan Vaaks led the Friars with 19 points off the bench and freshman Jamier Jones added 16 points on perfect 7-7 shooting. Providence’s defense allowed 52 second-half points and they shot just 7/26 from three-point range. A win is a win, but Providence has some things to clean up going into this matchup against an ACC school.
Score Projection: Providence 75 – Virginia Tech 73
Win Probability: Virginia Tech 50%, Providence 50%
This game is a toss-up for me. It is being held at a neutral site, though the location in Connecticut could favor Providence, as their school is much closer to Mohegan Sun Arena than Virginia Tech is. That could mean a slight advantage in crowd support, though I'm not sure many are crossing state lines to go to this game this early in the season.
As far as the outcome of this game is concerned, I'll take Providence to win as a slight underdog. We should see them shoot the basketball better from the outside than they did in their season opener and that could be enough for them to pick up the win in New England.
Jay Sanin is the GM and Head of Sports at ATS.io. He has been writing about sports gambling since 2013, handicapping tens of thousands of sporting events. He plays sides and totals aggressively across most sports and is more selective in player prop markets. He does his own modeling across most sports, and his family is jealous of how much time he spends on his precious spreadsheets.
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