BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Villanova @ Rutgers

January 11, 2006

Last year, these two teams hooked up and it was no contest as the Rutgers season began to implode around the time of their 94-61 home loss to Villanova. Rutgers is coming off a 82-78 win in the RAC against Seton Hall over the weekend and now welcome in a group of Wildcats that might be a little testy after their 91-87 home loss to West Virginia on Sunday.

Villanova, a 9-pt road favorite, features their four-guard line-up and Rutgers is also a team that prefers to play small and get into a helter-skelter type of game, forcing turnovers and capitalizing with the 3-pt shot. Rutgers have gone on long stretches this year struggling to score points and outside of Quincy Douby, it is very unlikely they have another offensive presence to keep up with the firepower the Wildcats will put on the floor at every position on the perimeter.

Defensively Villanova is very good at locking down the periemter and forcing the offense to set up out of their comfort zone. With a freshmen point guard, Anthony Farmer, for Rutgers, it will definitely be trial by fire as he will have to battle 1st-team all-conference guards in Allan Ray and Randy Foye and the tough Kyle Lowry.

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Villanova committed 22 turnovers against West Virginia, leading to their downfall. They will definitely concentrate on taking better care of the ball and their defensive effort and intensity will look to be taken up a notch for this one. Their former assistant Fred Hill, jr will be on the Rutgers bench, adding another subplot to this game.

For Rutgers, they will need a big game from Quincy Douby, but they will also need other players to step up. JR Inman is one that needs to have a good game and take advantage of his size offensively and Farmer needs to limit his mistakes against the guards of Villanova.

I think Rutgers will come out with a much improved effort, but they can not keep up offensively for 40 minutes and Villanova pulls away at the end of the first half, withstands an early 2nd half run from the Scarlet Knights and pulls away over the last 10 minutes.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

Villanova 80 Rutgers 65

Leae your prediction in the comment section!