Window Opening: Saturday, March 20, 8:00 AM The window is now open to pick the game final score as #2 seeded Villanova takes on #10 seeded St. Mary’s today at 1:05 PM EDT in the Dunkin Donuts Center. The Vegas odds-makers are favoring Nova (-5.0) with the over / under set at 154 (implying a score of 80-75).
So far this season, Villanova (25-7, #15 RPI) has scored an average of 82.2 points while holding their opponents to 72.8. St. Mary’s (27-5, #34 RPI) has scored an average of 79.5 points while holding their opponents to 66.2. St Mary’s, winners of six straight games (the last two over Gonzaga and Richmond) has an impressive record of 4-3 against Top 50 RPI Teams. Here’s their full body of work this season, sorted by their opponents’ RPI:
| SMU | OPP | MARG | Opponent | RPI | |
| 80 | vs | 58 | 22 | San Diego State | 23 |
| 80 | @ | 71 | 9 | Richmond | 24 |
| 70 | vs | 72 | (2) | Vanderbilt | 25 |
| 82 | vs | 89 | (7) | Gonzaga | 31 |
| 61 | @ | 80 | (19) | Gonzaga | 31 |
| 81 | @ | 62 | 19 | Gonzaga | 31 |
| 68 | @ | 63 | 5 | Utah State | 35 |
| 100 | vs | 68 | 32 | NMSU | 60 |
| 78 | vs | 67 | 11 | Northeastern | 76 |
| 77 | vs | 72 | 5 | Portland | 83 |
| 75 | @ | 80 | (5) | Portland | 83 |
| 69 | vs | 55 | 14 | Portland | 83 |
| 49 | @ | 60 | (11) | USC | 100 |
| 80 | vs | 65 | 15 | Pacific | 118 |
| 81 | @ | 76 | 5 | Oregon | 138 |
| 78 | @ | 71 | 7 | San Jose State | 181 |
| 85 | @ | 67 | 18 | LMU | 184 |
| 88 | vs | 80 | 8 | LMU | 184 |
| 83 | @ | 62 | 21 | San Francisco | 200 |
| 73 | vs | 57 | 16 | San Francisco | 200 |
| 101 | vs | 80 | 21 | Portland State | 224 |
| 71 | vs | 56 | 15 | San Diego | 226 |
| 61 | @ | 49 | 12 | San Diego | 226 |
| 85 | vs | 57 | 28 | Binghamton | 228 |
| 80 | @ | 72 | 8 | Santa Clara | 232 |
| 74 | vs | 62 | 12 | Santa Clara | 232 |
| 84 | @ | 75 | 9 | Hawaii | 250 |
| 92 | vs | 67 | 25 | Cal Poly | 260 |
| 88 | @ | 71 | 17 | Pepperdine | 303 |
| 76 | vs | 49 | 27 | Pepperdine | 303 |
| 94 | vs | 46 | 48 | Howard | 330 |