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The 9th seed Vanderbilt Commodores face the 8th seed Northwestern Wildcats in a West Region first round NCAA Tournament game that will take place at a neutral site at the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah Thursday March 16th at 4:30 PM ET. Vandy has been made a 1-point favorite over Northwestern in an interesting match. The total for this game originally opened at 131 points but has fallen at some betting shops to 130.
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Vanderbilt is coming off a 76-62 loss to Arkansas in their last game where they failed to cover the spread as a 3.5-point favorite. The total number of points scored in the game was 138, which was under the closing line of 143. Previous to the Arkansas game the Commodores had covered the spread in eight straight games and in seven of their last eight games, including their last three, the total has gone under. Vanderbilt had won three straight games before their loss to Arkansas.
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Northwestern is coming off a 76-48 loss to Wisconsin in their last game where they failed to cover the spread as a 4.5-point underdog. The total number of points scored in the game was 124, which was over the closing line of 123.5. Previous to the Wisconsin game Northwestern had covered the spread in two straight games and in their last three games the total had gone over every time. Northwestern had won two straight games before the loss to Wisconsin.
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Offensively, Vanderbilt is putting up 71.3 points per game on a 43.1% FG average. On the defensive side of things the Commodores are allowing 68.1 points per game on a 42.3% FG average.
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Northwestern is putting up 71.1 points per game on a 43.5% FG average. On defense the Wildcats are allowing 65.1 points per game on a 40.3% FG average.
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This is the first every meeting between these teams.
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Vanderbilt Commodores at Northwestern Wildcats Betting Trends<br />
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Vandy is 8-1 against the spread in their last 9 games overall.
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The Commodores are 7-2 straight up in their last 9 games.
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The game total has gone under in 7 of Vanderbilt’s last 8 games
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North Western is 4-2 against the spread in their last 6 games overall.
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The game total has gone over in 4 of the Wildcats last 5 games.
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Public Money Consensus<br />
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In this NCAAB matcup between Vanderbilt and Northwestern have the public leaning to the visiting Commodores minus the point with 63%. The over/under bettors are leaning to this game going over the posted total line of 131 with almost 70% on board.
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