BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Villanova @ DePaul

February 11, 2006


DePaul entertains Villanova on Saturday afternoon and the Blue Demons hopes for joining the Big East party next month in New York Sity was dealt another serious blow when they dropeed a 61-60 decision to Providence, at home, on Tuesday night. The Blie Demons find themselves at 2-8 in the conference and are staring at a pretty challenging slate to finish off conference play.

Villanova went out of the conference this week to claim the Big 5 crown with a 2nd half comeback win over rival St. Joseph's. The Wildcats continue to win in the conference, but things have been tough, as they have challeneged in each of their last four conference games, winning all by between 2 and 6 points. So, close games have been the norm for Villanova of late.

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If there was a good time to catch Villanova on your home court, it is probably this Saturday. coming off the normal emotional draining game with St. Joseph's and knowing they have a Big Monday date with Connecticut on Monday night, this is probably the definition of a sandwich game.

Can DePaul be the team to take advantage of it and steal one? Well, probably not with the way the Blue Demons have been playing of late. The DePaul offense has struggled of late, scoring just 47 and 44 points in losses to Marquette (road) and Georgetown (home) and managed just 20 2nd half points against Providence in their latest loss. Facing the ball pressure of Villanova is probably not a good remedy for what is ailing the Blue Demons as ballhandling and decision making with the ball has not been a strong point. I keep waiting for DePaul to regroup and show some life down the stretch, but they are running out of time.

The 4-guard craze of Villanova had an off-night against St Joe's with Mike Nardi out sick, but Kyle Lowry picked up the slack with a 25-pt performance that reminded us all how talented the Villanova "4th" guard is. Nardi could be back for this one and Allan Ray and Randy Foye are likely to find the DePaul match-up to their liking. DePaul does not have much of an inside threat offensively and are susceptible to the Villanova on-the-ball pressure that they will almost certainly put to good use.

It might be only natural for the Wildcats to look past DePaul a little bit. However, the offensive struggles that continue for DePaul do not give me much hope the Blue Demons can take advantage of any potential let down.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

Villanova 64 DePaul 52