BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Villanova @ South Florida

January 24, 2006


Villanova heads out on the road this week to face South Florida (tonight) and Notre Dame (Saturday). The Wildcats are 4-1 in the conference coming off Saturday's 80-65 win over Syracuse in the Wachovia Center.

South Florida looked like they were going to come away with their first conference win Friday night at Seton Hall but a furious rally late by the Pirates forced overtime and the Bulls simply ran out of options and fell, 94-89. The Bulls have lost seven straight and nine of their last 10 and sit at 0-5 in their first season in the Big East.

The Philadelphia Daily News loos at the competitive nature of the conference and that in this physical league, there are no gimmes: (Big) East Common Denominator.

The Tampa Tribune also previews the game: No Easy Welcome Home for the Bulls.

READ REST OF PREVIEW...CLICK "Read More" BELOW


Villanova enters the game as 15-pt favorites, and being on the road, against a team that has lost by just 4 pts to WVU (Home), 3 pts to Georgetown (road), 6 pts to Syracuse (road) and 5 pts in OT to SHU (road), that might seem like a lot. But, it is the other Big East loss that USF suffered that kind of sticks out to me, 68-49 at home to St John's.

Villanova relies on a guard-heavy, on the ball pressure attack that is athletically driven. St John's also pressures the ball so hard with strong and physical guards that this is the type of match-up that the undermanned Bulls could find themsevles run out of their own building very early.

South Florida is going to have to make the game very ugly and hope Villanova has another off shooting night. USF is prone to turnovers and Villanova loves to force them with their guards hounding the ball and forcing the offense to be run outside of its normal comfort zone. I just do not see South Florida being able to withstand this pressure with their lack of depth and talent at the guard positions.

I look for the Bulls to have a lot of trouble finding ways to put points on the board tonight and the Wildcats to cruise behind their 4-guard attack with Randy Foye and Allan Ray being too much, on both sides of the ball, for USF.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

Villanova 74 South Florida 55