College Basketball Odds, Pick for Xavier vs Marquette

Two of the Big East's Midwestern teams meet up for a rematch of the 2023 Big East Tournament title game on Sunday.

This is the first meeting of two between Xavier and Marquette. The Golden Eagles and Musketeers have both shown signs of greatness in conference this season while being vulnerable at other times.

Marquette got the better of Xavier two out of three times last season. Looking at stats form previous seasons will only tell a portion of the story, but this Marquette team is almost identical to what it had last year. On the other side, Xavier had a ton of roster turnover.

These two teams love to go back and forth with each other and have something more to play for, as they're trying to be the best team in the region.

Xavier is on the outside looking in in terms of both the Big East regular-season crown and the NCAA Tournament bubble. Over the next five games, it plays top-10 Marquette twice to try and boast its case before the Big East Tournament.

The Musketeers have lost three straight games, and the odds are stacked against them to break that streak.

The calling card for Xavier to find success in this matchup will be on the defensive end. The Musketeers rank inside the top 100 nationally defending both the 2 and 3.

Offensively, they struggle, but senior guard Quincy Olivari averages just under 20 points per game and can be the best player on the court at any given time.

Marquette is really solid all around, so Xavier will need more than just its solid defense to pull off this upset.

Marquette bounced back in a big way after its ugly loss to No. 1 UConn, defeating unserious DePaul by 34.

The Golden Eagles are the clear favorite in this matchup, but this will be a much sterner test than what they faced against DePaul.

Marquette is one of the more balanced teams in the nation, but it does its best work scoring inside. It'll be interesting to see how it fares against a Xavier defense that's more than solid.

Tyler Kolek is the ace of the Golden Eagles, but the trio of him, Kam Jones at the other guard spot and big man Oso Ighodaro is one of the elite three-headed monsters in the Big East.

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Xavier and Marquette always play great matchups, and I would expect more of the same on Sunday.

Marquette is the more experienced and well-rounded bunch, but I love how these two match up schematically. The Golden Eagles will have the edge offensively, and Xavier has a slight advantage defensively.

The biggest strength of Marquette is its ability to score the ball inside the 3-point line, while Xavier's biggest strength is defending that exact area.

The Golden Eagles will get the job done in the end, but I expect the Musketeers to give them a test from the jump. Let's take the points here.

Pick: Xavier +10.5