No obvious choice in sportsbook betting between Georgetown and Cincinnati

There are eight teams in the Big East Conference ranked in the Top 25, so you might think that basketball betting would lean towards one of those ranked opponents facing a non-ranked squad as the #17 Georgetown Hoyas visit the Cincinnati Bearcats on the final weekend of the regular season. Yet, looks may be deceiving.

#17 Georgetown (21-8, 10-7 Big East) at Cincinnati (23-7, 10-7 Big East)

Date/Time: Saturday, March 5, 2:00 PM ET

Venue: Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati, OH.

Broadcast: ESPN3/ESPN Full Court Package

Money Line: OFF

Spread: Not Available at time of writing

Over/Under: OFF

Both the Hoyas and Bearcats are even in the conference standings with West Virginia. The team that loses could slip as far in the standings as 11th place in the 16-team Big East. So what’s the catch? It’s that the bottom eight teams have to win four games to win the conference tournament next week at Madison Square Garden. The winner of this game only has to win three.

You can figure on a lot of sportsbook betting on this game with the home team. That’s largely because of Cincinnati’s 58-46 victory at Georgetown just ten days ago. The win was their first road triumph against a Top 25 team in seven seasons. Yancy Gates had a big night for the Bearcats, scoring 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for Cincinnati.

Another reason why a lot of sportsbook betting might be placed in Cincinnati’s favor was an appalling stat from that game: the Bearcats held the Hoyas to just 25% shooting from the floor for the entire game. It was easily the worst shooting day Georgetown has had in a quarter century. Then again, Cincinnati enters the game with the nation’s fifth toughest defense to score upon.

Gates is the Bearcats season leader in scoring (11.2) and rebounds (6.9) per game. Dion Dixon is another player who can fill the bucket, averaging 11.1 points per game too.

Yet, Georgetown’s ranking and program pedigree will also entice a lot of sportsbook betting on their part. One line of thinking is they can’t shoot any worse than they did in that loss to the Bearcats. Another is that despite that horrific performance, the Hoyas are still ranked eighth in the entire country in field goal percentage at 48.5% per contest.

And then there’s the fact that it’s the final regular season game for three key Hoyas seniors. This might explain why there will be an equal amount of sportsbook betting for the Hoyas. Georgetown is led by: Austin Freeman, tops on the team in scoring at 17.7 points per game while shooting 50.3% from the floor; Chris Wright is second in scoring at 13.1 PPG and leads with 5.4 assists per outing; and Julian Vaughn is fourth in points per game average at 8.6 per contest, while also topping the club in rebounds at 6.3 per game.

This will be one of the more competitive games on the docket this weekend. The home court advantage will be the slightest of reasons for the Bearcats to squeak by with a victory.