Mar 25, 2018; Boston, MA, USA; Villanova Wildcats guard Mikal Bridges (25) and guard Phil Booth (5) celebrate after defeating the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the championship game of the East regional of the 2018 NCAA Tournament at the TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

The Michigan Wolverines are a quality basketball team. They’re well-coached, play stingy defense, and feature balanced scoring. They won the Big Ten Tournament last month and have stormed through some solid opponents in recent weeks on the way to the NCAA Tournament final.

But despite all that, just about no one is giving John Beilein’s team a chance against Villanova on Monday night. Here’s a rundown of predictions from “experts” at national publications:

Overall, that makes 39 out of a possible 40 predictors going with the Wildcats. That is what you might call “consensus.”

Here’s how you know things are bleak for the Wolverines: Even their hometown papers, whom you might expect to harbor a little bias, are pretty confident in Villanova. Three out of four predictors from the Detroit Free Press have the Wildcats, as do all three writers at the Detroit NewsThe Michigan Daily doesn’t seem to have published predictionsbut if they had, we can only imagine they would have favored Villanova.

None of this is that surprising given that Villanova is a No. 1 seed, has won by double-digits in each NCAA Tournament outing, and made Kansas look like a jayvee squad Saturday. But it’s still a bit jarring to see a solid No. 3 seed like Michigan completely written off. For what it’s worth, most sportsbooks seem to have Villanova favored by seven points, which is a substantial margin but certainly not a laughable one.

We’ll find out soon enough whether the masses are right on this one. If Michigan winds up pulling off the upset, our friend Fred at @OldTakesExposed will have himself a busy night.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.