Tonight Nova begins Big East play at home against perennial bottom-feeder DePaul. Every indication is that this should be an easy warm-up for the Wildcats before entering a tough stretch of games from New Year's Eve through the 10th of January.
Nova is a better scoring team, a better defensive team, and a better shooting team. The Wildcats are also a deeper and more experienced team.
Sophomore Eli Cain is the lead threat for DePaul. He is averaging 18.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. He is also the Blue Demons' best three-point shooter at 40%. His 2.5 turnovers per game are a cause of concern for DePaul.
Senior Billy Garrett Jr. is the only other Blue Demon scoring in double figures. He is averaging 14.6 points per game to go with 2.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists. But like Cain, he is having turnover issues, averaging a whopping 3 per game.
Both Cain and Garrett Jr. are 6-6, giving DePual decent size in the backcourt. But Villanova excels at neutralizing size advantages, so it shouldn't be much of a problem.
Tre'Darius McCallum is averaging 9 points and 7.3 rebounds and is the only other Blue Demon averaging more than 7 points per game. At 6-7, he doesn't present any sort of matchup problems for the Wildcats.
DePual shoots just 44% from the floor and 31% from three. Combined with their 14 turnovers per game, they shouldn't have the fire power to hang with Villanova.
The main concerns for Nova are internal ones. The long layoff between games and a tendency to play down to their competition, particularly early in games. It would be nice to see Nova assert themselves early and and put any thoughts of an upset out of DePaul's minds before the half. With a brutal stretch following this game, including back-to-back road games at Creighton and Butler followed by home games against Marquette and Xavier, Nova needs to avoid a slip-up in this one. With Nova facing their three main threats in the Big East in the next four games, handling business tonight against a team they should have no problems with is imperative.
Nova is a better scoring team, a better defensive team, and a better shooting team. The Wildcats are also a deeper and more experienced team.
Sophomore Eli Cain is the lead threat for DePaul. He is averaging 18.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. He is also the Blue Demons' best three-point shooter at 40%. His 2.5 turnovers per game are a cause of concern for DePaul.
Senior Billy Garrett Jr. is the only other Blue Demon scoring in double figures. He is averaging 14.6 points per game to go with 2.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists. But like Cain, he is having turnover issues, averaging a whopping 3 per game.
Both Cain and Garrett Jr. are 6-6, giving DePual decent size in the backcourt. But Villanova excels at neutralizing size advantages, so it shouldn't be much of a problem.
Tre'Darius McCallum is averaging 9 points and 7.3 rebounds and is the only other Blue Demon averaging more than 7 points per game. At 6-7, he doesn't present any sort of matchup problems for the Wildcats.
DePual shoots just 44% from the floor and 31% from three. Combined with their 14 turnovers per game, they shouldn't have the fire power to hang with Villanova.
The main concerns for Nova are internal ones. The long layoff between games and a tendency to play down to their competition, particularly early in games. It would be nice to see Nova assert themselves early and and put any thoughts of an upset out of DePaul's minds before the half. With a brutal stretch following this game, including back-to-back road games at Creighton and Butler followed by home games against Marquette and Xavier, Nova needs to avoid a slip-up in this one. With Nova facing their three main threats in the Big East in the next four games, handling business tonight against a team they should have no problems with is imperative.