Nova Report
The 15-14 Villanova Wildcats are in Newark, New Jersey tonight to battle the Seton Hall Pirates (16-13) at 8:30 pm eastern. Line is Nova-1.5/130.5.
It’s Senior Night for the Hall who look to avenge a 58-54 loss to the Wildcats on 2/11. The Pirates were obliterated by Xavier last out by 22 points. They shot 39% overall and 25% from 3. Star guard Richmond was out with a back injury and is questionable for tonight.
For Villanova, they’ve won two straight over ranked opponents and with ranked UCONN up next, this could be a trap game. However, for the Cats to make it to the NCAA’s, they need to get to 20 wins. They won’t get there without winning tonight. As Coach Neptune always says: ‘The most important game is the next game’. Last out, they took down Creighton as they shot 50% from the field and Eric Dixon went off for a career high of 31 points. For the first time this year, Villanova played the type of Basketball that Nova Nation was accustomed to seeing. They passed the ball around, played lock down defense and one of their scorers got hot. Just a note: even though it’s only 75 miles from Villanova to Newark, a snowstorm may make it quite a long bus ride.
What Will Happen
For the Pirates, 6’10” Tyrese Samuels torched the Cats both offensively and defensively when they played in Villanova. They’ll feed him trying to pile up fouls on Eric Dixon. They’ll also let Al-Amir Dawes hoist 3’s early to get the crowd going on Senior Night. Even if Richmond plays, not sure how effective he’ll be but he’ll give it everything he has. He’s tall enough to take the Nova guards inside to the hoop. Defensively, they have no choice but to respect Dixon’s ability to shoot from outside. That could open up the lane for Whitmore.
Villanova needs to get Daniels going again as he’s been relatively quiet the last two games. Expect Dixon to be used as a decoy from the 3 line and instead he will be a facilitator. Look for Moore to post up a lot vs. anyone who is guarding him. Nova will need to outrebound the Pirates so they’ll be crashing the boards and boxing out with a vengeance. Whitmore should get the ball closer to the lane where he can dribble less and drive more.
Seton Hall will improve its shooting vs last game and Nova will shoot less than 50%. It’s going to be a close game for sure. Bottom line is Villanova is desperate for a win, they have more talent and they are playing their best basketball of the season. They will win a barn burner by 2-3 points.
Nova Pick: Nova moneyline-125
Nova Pick Record-13-15-1