So, it's been a tough day on my end, my computer crashed as I was 2/3 of the way through our preview of the Quakers and despite noticing something was off with the computer and trying to get my work saved before the crash, I lost it all. Considering that if I started from scratch I wouldn't be done until right near game time and that wouldn't be very useful for you all, we're just going to do a cliff notes version here.

Penn has some solid wins over teams that would traditionally be considered out of their weight class (Alabama, Providence) as well as a Big 5 win over La Salle (75-59). The Quakers also played Arizona very tough last week. However, they also have some poor losses (Rice, Lafayette).

Penn averages 77.3 points per game and also allows 77.3 points per game.

Defense is Penn's biggest issue. The Quakers haven't generated turnovers and have had difficulty guarding shooters and defending the three-point line. Per Synergy, they are among the worst in the country defending spot-ups and they rank 282nd in opponent's three-point percentage. They've also been vulnerable in the pick and roll.

Offensively, they've had success in the post and have had reasonable success shooting the ball.

Freshman guard Jordan Dingle has played well and leads the team with 17.3 PPG. AJ Brodeur has been good as well with 16.9 points and 8.1 rebounds. Ryan Betley and Devon Goodman round out the double-figure scorers with 13.3 and 13, respectively. That group all average at least 33 minutes per game.

Max Martz (5.3 PPG), Eddie Scott (4.3) Bryce Washington (3.7), and Lucas Monroe (3.3) round out the members of the rotation averaging at least 10 minutes per game.

Martz, Betley, and Dingle are their best three-point shooters.

Villanova should be able to exploit the defensive issues, and I'd expect a lot of good looks tonight. The Cats should also be able to win the turnover battle.

Penn is a tough team with some talent, and it has proven it can play with some really good teams with its performance against Arizona. Defense and inconsistency have dampened an otherwise promising start for the Quakers.

I apologize for the technical difficulties, and I would have much preferred to give you all our usual much more detailed breakdown, but as I said it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to publish it with just an hour or so before game time, so this will have to suffice for tonight's game.

The Vegas Line opened with Nova as an 11.5 point favorite.
The Line has now increased to 13 points.
Probably too high for a Big 5 game, even though it is at the Finn.

6:30 PM, FS1

A look at the Explorers as Nova looks to get back on track and start a new run in the Big 5.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-la-salle-1

I realized that I often reference KenPom and Synergy numbers in our game previews and that it would likely be helpful if we knew Nova's numbers as well. Instead of rehashing the Cats' numbers every time we do a game preview, I think the better approach would be to do an occasional update of those numbers in a standalone article. That will save time/space in the previews while giving us somewhere to check the Nova numbers for comparison.

In addition to helping us compare the Cats to each opponent, I think this will serve us well in tracking Villanova's progress throughout the season and just get a better overall understanding of what we're seeing on the court.

Here's our first look, and I hope everyone finds it useful. In addition, if anyone has anything specific they'd like me to look up, particularly regarding a specific player, don't hesitate to ask.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/looking-at-nova-s-kenpom-synergy-numbers-vol-1

Nova came up just short on Sunday against a good Baylor team.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/cats-fall-to-baylor-87-78

A look at the Bears as Nova tries for a top 25 win and another early-season tournament title.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-baylor-5

It was another strong performance from the Wildcats on Friday.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/nova-takes-down-mississippi-state-83-76

Mississippi State defeated Tulane 80-66 to advance and earn a date with Villanova tomorrow.

Iverson Molinar had 21 points and five assists for the Bulldogs, hitting 4-6 from deep. Reggie Perry had 18 points and five rebounds.

The Bulldogs shot 60.5 percent from the floor and 55 percent from three. They dominated the glass 41-16 but committed 25 turnovers.

Friday's game is scheduled for 2:30 on ESPN2.

There was a lot to like about Thursday's performance.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/cats-open-myrtle-beach-invitational-with-98-69-win-over-mtsu

A look at the Blue Raiders ahead of tomorrow's early start.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-middle-tennessee-state

Per Jay Wright, five-star freshman Bryan Antoine has been cleared for competition following spring shoulder surgery. Antoine is available to play in upcoming games at Myrtle Beach Invitational.

The news comes less than two weeks after Antoine was cleared to start practicing with the team.

The team plans on being cautious with Antoine and I'd expect them to ease him into the lineup, starting with small chunks of playing time and seeing how he responds. Still, this is fantastic news for the Cats and is way ahead of the original schedule for Antoine, which didn't expect him to see the court until at least mid-December and more likely late December. The ability to get Antoine up to speed well ahead of the start of the conference schedule is huge, and the next couple weeks just got a lot more interesting.

We'll try to forget this one as quickly as possible, but here's our recap of a disastrous trip to Columbus.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/cats-crushed-by-ohio-state-76-51

A look at the Bobcats as Nova looks to get back on track.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-ohio-10

A look at the Buckeyes as the Cats get an early-season challenge in what is a really interesting game.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-ohio-state-7

Tonight, 7 PM, TV Fox Sports 1, at Ohio State. Villanova ranked #10 in the weekly AP Poll, Ohio State is #16.
Vegas has OSU as a 3 point favorite to win the game.

Seton Hall's best player, Myles Powell, who is the Big East's pre-season Player of the Year and a pre-season All American, sustained a "serious" ankle injury on Saturday during the Hall's game vs. Stoney Brook. He may be out for an extended period of time.

Seton Hall was picked to finish first in the Big East this season. Nova second.

So I seem to be having some technical difficulties, I'm not sure if they're on my end or with the site. Our five takeaways from the Army game article has been published, but the homepage isn't displaying correctly for me, so I can't share the link at the moment.

You should be able to access it from the homepage, and if anyone could try and let me know if they see it or not that would be a huge help. In the meantime, I'll try to figure out what's going on and I will share the link in this thread when things are working again. Apologies for any inconvenience, hopefully the issues are only on my end right now.

Per Jay Wright, 5-star freshman Bryan Antoine has been cleared to begin practicing with the team.

This is great news and is slightly ahead of the late November target the program had been publicly discussing over the past month. We'll keep an eye on Antoine's progress to try to determine a potential date for a return to the court, but the timeline the team had been using was a return to practice in late November and a return to the court in mid-to-late December, so assuming there are no setbacks and that Antoine gets up to speed as expected, a target for a return would be early-to-mid December.

Regardless, this is a huge step for Antoine and a great sign for the Cats. We will update with futher information as it becomes available.

A look at Tuesday's season-opening win over Army.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/cats-open-season-with-97-54-win-over-army

Game chats haven't been successful in my time here, so I'm not expecting much interaction. If you guys want to chat that would be great, go for it. If not, no worries, I'll just post some random observations from the Finn in the thread.

There was some debate as to the starters, but it looks like it's going to be Gillespie, Moore, Samuels, JRE, and Bey. The earlier thought was that it would be DCR instead of Moore, and we'll have to wait til tip to know for sure.

One observation from warmups, Gillespie didn't seem to be bothered by the mask as he was draining shot after shot.

Getting familiar with Army ahead of tonight's season-opener.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-villanova-vs-army

On the eve of the 2019-20 season, Villanova's 2021 recruiting board took a hit as high-priority wing A.J. Griffin verbally committed to Duke.

Griffin is a five-star player currently ranked 8th in his class by Rivals. He was on campus at Villanova for a visit earlier this month but apparently that wasn't enough to lure him away from the Blue Devils.

It's a disappointing development for the Wildcats, but they remain in a decent position with a handful of other elite 2021 prospects. This development likely moves players like Max Christie, Trevor Keels, and Trey Patterson up the Cats' 2021 board.

The good news is that in less than 24 hours we'll have actually basketball to focus on and can but recuriting on the back burner a little bit until the spring.