Xavier Musketeers vs. DePaul Blue Demons January 18 Betting Preview

The Xavier Musketeers will seek their 12th consecutive victory on Wednesday evening when they take on the DePaul Blue Demons in Chicago. Xavier has risen into the Top 10 of the AP Poll to a number eight ranking in the nation with a 15-3 record overall and a 7-0 start to the Big East season. 

DePaul Blue Demons Overview

The Blue Demons of DePaul have continued their hard times from last season with an 8-10 record so far this season. Tony Stubblefield led the Blue Demons to a promising start during his first campaign, with a 9-1 beginning to the 2021-22 season. Since then, DePaul has gone just 14-26 and fallen back into their traditional ways.

This season, the Blue Demons are predictably mediocre and difficult to wager on. DePaul is just 4-4-1 against the spread at home while towing a razor-thin line of +0.5 points in regards to outperformance of the number. 

Over their last four contests, they have covered just once with two of those failures to cover coming on their home floor.

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DePaul is led by super senior forward Javan Johnson, who is scoring 15.7 points per game while also ranking third on the roster with 4.9 rebounds per contest. Umoja Gibson, another super-duper senior in his sixth season, is second on the team in scoring at 14.9 points per contest while leading the Blue Demons in assists at 5.1 per game. 

Xavier Musketeers Overview

Slowly and steadily, Sean Miller has led this Musketeers team to standing where they are considered national championship contenders. Xavier may have struggled early on against some of the better teams on their schedule, falling to Indiana, Duke, and Gonzaga but have taken all comers since falling to the latter on November 27th. 

Point guard Souley Boum has been phenomenal this season and could be one of the favorites for Big East Player of the Year. However, the frontcourt is where the real power lies with this team. The trio of Jack Nunge, Zach Freemantle, and Colby Jones has been nothing shy of extraordinary this season.

 The frontcourt starters are all averaging better than 14 points per contest and are combining to log roughly 43 points, 21 rebounds, and 10.5 assists per game. On the defensive side, they also combine to provide more than three blocks and three steals per ballgame.

As a road team, this Musketeer club has been just as excellent. Miller’s group is 3-1 against the spread in true road games this season. They are outperforming the number by +3.8 points per contest and have a margin of victory number of +7.3, which is the best in the Big East.