Marquette Favored Over Head Coach Shaka Smart’s Former Team
Texas vs Marquette Betting Trends Has Golden Eagles Favored to Win At Home
Marquette Goes After Its 15th Consecutive Home Game Against Texas
Shaka Smart will be receiving plenty of attention as his current team and former team will be meeting in a matchup of top 25 teams. The Texas vs Marquette betting trends favor the Golden Eagles.
Smart won 109 games in his NCAAB seasons at Texas with the Longhorns reaching the NCAA tournament three times and winning the 2019 NIT. He is 54-22 in his third season as Marquette’s head coach.
The college basketball betting lines list Marquette as the 8-point favorite after the Golden Eagles opened as 8-point favorites.
Marquette won the only previous matchup between the teams 65-56 in the championship of the 1977 Milwaukee Classic as Jerome Whitehead had 21 points and 12 rebounds. It is surprising that the teams haven’t met in previous March Madness games.
Forward Dylan Disu is out for Texas.
When looking at the odds to win March Madness, Marquette came into the season with the seventh-best odds of winning the national championship with Texas tied for 10th in the championship odds.
Marquette (+230) had the best odds of winning the Big East title when the 2023-24 season began with Texas (+500) third behind Kansas and Houston in the Big 12 championship odds.
Marquette dropped five spots to No. 8 in the Associated Press poll with the Golden Eagles moving from third to seventh in the coaches poll after a loss to unranked Wisconsin.
Texas vs Marquette 
Day/Time:
Location: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, WI
Streaming: FS1
Newcomers Leading the Longhorns
The top three scorers for Texas are transfers led by Max Abmas, who is averaging 16.7 points and 4 assists per game, coming in from Oral Roberts.
Former Virginia forward/center Kadin Shedrick, who didn’t play in the loss to UConn, has scored in double figures in each of his last four games. Former UCF guard Ithiel Horton, playing for his fourth college basketball team in the last five seasons, has scored at least 10 points in six of the seven games. Keep that in mind when looking at the Texas vs Marquette betting trends.
Texas has covered against the Las Vegas odds in just one of its last six games.
Marquette Looking to Rebound
It has been an interesting start to the season for Marquette with the Golden Eagles topping Illinois, UCLA and Kansas. However, in losses to Purdue and Wisconsin, the Golden Eagles have been outrebounded 38-23 and 36-23.
It is not a great sign that the No. 2 rebounder on the Golden Eagles is 6-foot-3 guard Tyler Kolek. That could play a role in the Texas vs Marquette betting trends.
The 6-foot-11 Oso Ighodaro needs some help in the rebounding department. There are four other NCAAB players 6-foot-8 or taller but two of them did not play in either defeat. In the two losses, Ben Gold recorded no rebounds in 16 minutes while David Joplin had six rebounds in 61 minutes.
Five of Marquette’s last six games finished under the total.
Last Meeting
Marquette coach Shaka Smart was born the same year of the only meeting between the Golden Eagles and the Texas Longhorns while Texas coach Rodney Terry was only 8 at that time.
Marquette is 57-63 against teams currently in the Big 12 with 46 of those games coming against Cincinnati. Texas is 24-26 against current Big East teams.
Texas vs Marquette Betting Preview
Marquette is going after its 15th straight home win.
There’s not much to separate Texas and Marquette in many areas as Texas averages two more points per game with Marquette allowing one more point per game. Texas shoots 50.4% from the field and Marquette is connecting on 48.2% of its shots.
Marquette has the edge in continuity with the top eight scorers being members of last year’s team while just three of the eight players on the Texas team playing at least 10 minutes per game were on the team a season ago.
Texas ranks in the top 40 nationally in field-goal percentage and assists per game and is one of the best teams at defending the 3-pointer.
Speaking of impressive statistical combinations, Marquette is in the top 50 among Division I teams with the fewest turnovers committed and most steals per game.
Marquette is 3-1 in the Big East-Big 12 Battle with Texas posting a 1-3 mark.
This is a matchup to remember when making March Madness picks if they meet again.
Texas is just 2-5 against the spread this season with the Longhorns failing to cover in their only game this season as the underdog.
Marquette is 4-3-1 against the college basketball betting lines but just 2-3 as the favorite.
The total has gone over in six of the last games played by Texas with the total set at 150 for this matchup.
Marquette is looking like a solid pick to win outright but the 8-point spread seems a little on the high side.
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