BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Villanova @ Georgetown

February 17, 2007


The Big East tips off Saturday's action with a marquee match-up in Philadelphia when the Georgetown Hoyas make the short trip to meet the Villanova Wildcats. A win on Saturday will move Georgetown into a tie with Pittsburgh for the conference lead with four games to play. Villanova is still trying to solidify their standing in the conference this season and a win on Saturday goes a long way in doing so.

These two teams met in January at Georgetown and Villanova avoided an 0-3 conference start by picking up a very important 56-52 win on the road. The Wildcats forced 21 Hoya turnovers in the contest by extending pressure all over the court. Georgetown has a very thin backcourt and their Princeton-style offense is not designed to run in a hurry, and forcing Georgetown to expend time and energy breaking the press was a key factor in the Hoyas never getting their offense on track in the contest. Despite Mike Nardi and Curtis Sumpter combining to shoot 3-15, Villanova was victorious. On the Georgetown side, the turnovers were the killer, but Roy Hibbert also did not attempt a shot from the field in the entire game and scored hus only two points (2-6) at the foul line. A stat-line of 2 pts and 3 rebounds in 24 minutes by the 7'2 center will not get it done for Georgetown.

In the rematch, the Wildcats will look to use the same formula. They will press and trap Georgetown at every chance they can. Playing at home, Mike Nardi and Curtis Sumpter are nearly guaranteed to have much better games, but will they be able to keep Hibbert from scoring opportunities as well as last time?

After losing to Villanova, the Hoyas turned around and dropped a game to Pittsburgh. However, since then, Georgetown has won eight straight game by an average score of 73-57. Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green have been playing like the two All-American candidates they were hyped to be in the preseason. The effecient Hoyas waste little opportunity on the offensive end and they have been executing at peak capacity in recent weeks. They will look to continue to feed the ball to Hibbert and run more and more of the offense through Green, opening up opportunities for Jonathan Wallace and DeJuan Summers to hurt you as well.

Right now the Hoyas are rolling. I do think Villanova is a quality team, but they will be hard-pressed slowing the Georgetown train as it rolls through Philadelphia on Saturday.

NBE Blogger Prediction: Georgetown 72 Villanova 62