Villanova (7-7) Goes Up Against South Florida (8-7)

Filed under Game Preview on January 4th, 2012

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It should be a lively atmosphere at The Pavilion on Thursday as Villanova welcomes South Florida in a Big East bout. It gets started at 8:00 EST and you can catch it on PHL17.

With just a few games played, this might set the tone for the Big East campaign for both teams. The Wildcats come in at 7-7 overall and are 0-2 in the Big East. Meanwhile, the Bulls have a record of 8-7 including 1-1 in the conference.

Villanova should be able to win this game. Villanova has a 6-0 record at home, creating a home-court advantage against the South Florida 0-6 record on the road. We're going with the RPI for this one, which has the Wildcats ranked #89 and above the Bulls at #138.

There are two statistical areas where Villanova has an advantage. The Wildcats beat the Bulls in rebounding, where they have the advantage 40 per game to 33 per game. Villanova also leads in scoring, 72 pts/game to 61 pts/game. The Wildcats went 1-1 against the Bulls last year. Over the last four seasons, Villanova is 4-1 against South Florida, and 2-0 at home.

• The Villanova rebounding leader (Mouphtaou Yarou) has more rebounds than the South Florida rebounding leader (Toarlyn Fitzpatrick).
• We just win. Villanova has more wins over the last 5 years than South Florida (124 vs 71).
• We have a history of cultivating talent. Over the past 10 years Villanova has had more players drafted by the NBA than South Florida (3 vs 2).
• We make our fans proud. Villanova has a better record at home than South Florida this season (6-0 vs 8-1).

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