Virginia vs. Boston College prediction and odds for Wednesday, February 22 (Cavaliers set to cover as road favorites)
By Reed Wallach
Virginia is in line to win the ACC regular season title, as long as it holds serve down the stretch.
The Cavaliers have a one game lead on Miami heading into Wednesday’s matchup against Boston College, who they beat by 19 at home last month. The Eagles are still rebuilding, but did go on the wrong and beat Florida State, but this is a different animal against the league’s best team.
That’s indicated in the point spread, though, with the Cavaliers laying a big number, is it too many?
Let’s break it down by first checking out the odds:
Virginia vs. Boston College odds, spread and total
Virginia vs. Boston College prediction and pick
Boston College has been somewhat successful against the spread in ACC play, 9-7, mainly because of its ability to slow games down and generate turnovers.
The Eagles play at a methodical tempo that is bottom third in league play, but generate turnovers at the third highest clip. While that can work against the middle class of the conference, it won’t against Virginia, who is the best ball-handling group in the ACC and top 10 in the country.
BC has been trying to limit possessions, which is exactly how Virginia wants to play, one of the five slowest teams in the country. However, the Eagles are sloppy with the ball, 13th in ACC turnover rate, and no team is forcing more TO’s than the Woos.
The first meeting between these two closed at 122.5, but flew over the total in a 76-57 win for Virginia. However, I don’t see the need to push the total up three points. Neither team wants to run, but BC is going to struggle to score against the compact Virginia defense that can generate a ton of loose balls.
With limited possessions, I’ll bank on some normalized shooting and an under play as my best bet here.
Track all of Reed’s bets at Betstamp HERE!
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.