BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Louisville @ Villanova

January 30, 2006


Prior to the season, Big Monday looked to have a marquee Big East match-up with Louisville travelling to meet Villanova for a battle of two of the top teams in the conference. However, in the first month of conference play, only one of these two teams have kept up their end of the bargain.

Villanova is gunning to become the first Big East team to seven conference wins as they enter tonight's contest with a 6-1 mark in league play. The Wildcats edged South Florida and Notre Dame on the road last week and return home to Philadelphis for tonight's game.

Louisville enters the conference mid-point mark at 2-5 in league play following their loss on the road to Rutgers at the RAC on Saturday. The Cardinals are in desperate need of wins and have already suffered a home loss to Villanova in their conference opener.

Here are a list of preview stories on the game from the internet:

UL Not Giving Up Hope Yet (Louisville Courier-Journal)
Louisville Just a Big East Baby (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Pitino's Brickinos Can't Solve Shooting Woes (Lexington Herald-Leader)

For our brief preview and game prediction...CLICK "Read More" BELOW


Villanova enters tonight's game as 10-pt favorites over the Louisville Cardinals. Villanova won the first meeting between the two teams at Freedom Hall, 76-67. With thier unique 4-guard line-up, the Wildcats will again look to apply pressure on the ball against Louisville and force them to play a little faster than they would like. In their first meeting, the undersized Wildcats out-rebounded the bigger Cards, 42-34, including 13-7 on the offensive boards, and Louisville struggled shooting, hitting just 3-20 from 3-pt range against the perimeter pressure.

Louisville has lost three of their last four conference game and has been abysmal offensively in those losses ((SJU, UConn, Rutgers) averaging just 57 PPG and shooting 14-64 from 3-pt range (22%). Not what one would expect from a Rick Pitino team.

Taquan Dean is back for Louisville and has averaged 14.5 PPG in 27 minutes a game since returning from a high ankle sprain. He is still not 100% and battling the Villanova on the ball pressure will not be an easy task for a healthy guard. David Padgett and Juan Palacios must step up and help alleviate the pressure on the guards by being able to create their own opportunities and be available for the ball. Adjusting to the physical and intense nature of Big East basketball has been a slow process for their finesse-style big men, but lingering injuries have hampered any consistency they might have been able to produce.

Villanova is a team full of experience and skill. The fact that they can continue to outrebound opponents on sheer determination and effort is remarkable, even when their shots are not falling from the perimeter, they dig down even harder on the defensive end and are willing to do what it takes to ear the W. They are an excellent free throw shooting team that thrives in the pressure situations.

Louisville knows they need to start winning games, home and on the road, but finding the right mix tonight is going to be very difficult.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

Villanova 74 Louisville 63