Georgetown vs Rutgers Betting Trends: Knights Have Edge
Hoyas Look to Bounce Back After Loss to Holy Cross
Few teams fall as fast as the Georgetown Hoyas. Once, one of the top college basketball teams annually, the Hoyas are 2-37 in Big East play the past two seasons. Things will get better under new coach Ed Cooley, but they’re not there yet, as evidenced by the 68-67 home loss to Holy Cross last game. The Scarlet Knights dropped their first game of the season, but have won their previous two games. We’ll look at the Georgetown vs Rutgers betting trends and come up with a play on Wednesday’s televised game. Rutgers is favored by 10 points, and the total is 133.
Georgetown Hoyas at Rutgers Scarlet Knights 
Day/Time:
Location: Jersey Mike’s Arena, Piscataway, N.J.
Line: Rutgers -10
Total: 133
Streaming: Fox Sports 1
Cooley Has Plenty of Work Ahead
Georgetown landed a solid coach in Cooley, but it’s going to take time. He was successful at Fairfield and Providence before moving to the Georgetown bench. There’s no reason he can’t be successful with the Hoyas. He completely overhauled the roster, and there will be some growing pains along the way. But it won’t take long until the Hoyas are competing in March Madness games once again.
The first thing the Hoyas need to do is learn how to win. That’s something the team hasn’t done much of the past few NCAAB seasons, and it reared its head against the Crusaders. Georgetown had a 57-46 lead with 8:01 remaining in the game. They lost 68-67.
The Hoyas have to get better from the foul line, shooting just 57.9%. A better effort than the 12 for 19 against Holy Cross and it’s probably a different result. But when you start two freshmen and a sophomore, those things are going to happen.
Defensively, Georgetown has played well. But they’ve also played Lemoyne and Holy Cross. You should post good stats when those are the teams on your schedule.
The Hoyas are just 3-45 straight-up as an underdog over the past two-plus seasons. They’ve managed to go 20-26-2 against the point spread in that time.
Rutgers Making Most of Favorable Schedule
The Scarlet Knights have six of their first seven college basketball games at home and have won the two games played at Rutgers so far. The opening-season loss to Princeton was a neutral court game. Rutgers is 1-2 against the spread and 0-3 in totals in the early going.
The Scarlet Knights haven’t been great offensively, shooting 38.3% from the field. Rutgers is even worse in 3-pointers, making just 24.6% through the first three games.
But the Scarlet Knights are playing pretty solid defense, holding teams to 36.3% from the field and 29.4% from 3-point range. That will be the key for Rutgers all season long, especially once Big Ten Conference play begins.
The Georgetown vs Rutgers betting trends show the Scarlet Knights are a decent home team against the point spread. But Rutgers hasn’t been the most reliable of favorites. The Scarlet Knights are 22-15 ATS at home, but just 17-23 against the spread when favored.
Who to Bet On?
The college basketball betting lines are pretty solid on this game. The Scarlet Knights deserve to be decent-sized favorites at this point of the season. If this game was played in February, the line would likely be a little lower. The Georgetown youngsters need some time to adjust to the college game.
This is a bit of a challenging game to handicap, but it is being broadcast on Fox Sports 1, which will help attract a few more picks and parlays NCAAB being placed on the game. The Georgetown vs Rutgers betting trends show the Scarlet Knights as a fair under team at home. But Georgetown has been an over team on the road, although that took place under Patrick Ewing. Under Cooley, the Hoyas should return to playing tough, hard-nosed defense.
The total is a bit on the low side, but believe the under 134.5 is the way to play this one. Neither team shoots particularly well, both play defense and neither team really likes to push the tempo.
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