MEN’S BASKETBALL GAMEDAY
NO. 1 UCONN AT VILLANOVA
When: Saturday, 8 p.m.
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia
Records: UConn 16-2 (6-1 Big East), Villanova 11-6 (4-2 Big East)
TV: FOX/FS1
Radio: UConn Sports Network, WAVZ-New Haven (1300 AM), WGCH- Greenwich (1490 AM), WATRWaterbury (1320 AM), WICH-Norwich (1310 AM, 94.5 FM), WILI-Willimantic (1400 AM, 95.3 FM), Fox Sports 97.9 FM Hartford, SiriusXM-983, SXM App 973
KEEP AN EYE ON
Mystery men: Will the real Villanova men’s basketball team please stand up?
Are the Wildcats the team that beat Texas Tech, No. 4 North Carolina and No. 10 Memphis on consecutive days to win the Battle 4 Atlantis in November and is currently 4-2 and in second place in the Big East standings?
Or are they the team that somehow lost to all three of their mid-major, Philly-area rivals, Penn, Saint Joseph’s and Drexel?
Or maybe something in between? The top-ranked UConn men’s basketball team will find out Saturday night in the City of Brotherly Love.
Talent pool: One thing is certain: Villanova has talent. Perhaps its most talented player, however, has been bothered by injuries the past two seasons.
Justin Moore, a 6-foot-5 grad guard, was the second-leading scorer on Nova’s Final Four team two seasons ago. But he tore his Achilles tendon late that season and missed much of last season, eventually returning to average 13.5 points per game.
Moore was selected to the preseason all-Big East First team by the league’s coaches this season and got off to a strong start. But he suffered a right knee sprain in a Dec. 5 loss at Kansas State and was out for over a month. Moore returned on Jan. 12 in a win over DePaul, but in the two games since he’s returned, he’s averaged just five points in nearly 27 minutes.
But Moore isn’t the Wildcats’ only weapon. Eric Dixon, the 6-8, 255-pound veteran center, has been ‘Nova’s best player this season and one of the best in the Big East. He’s averaging a team-best 15.3 points per game while also shooting 36-percent from 3 in the Wildcats’ position-less offense. Dixon has been a Husky-killer in the past, including a career-best 24point, 12-rebound, four-assist performance in a Villanova home victory in 2022.
Villanova is also powered by a host of transfers who have so far had varying levels of success: TJ Bamba (Washington State), Tyler Burton (Richmond) and Hakim Hart (Maryland). Meanwhile, sophomore Brendan Hausen has been a sharpshooter off the bench, hitting a whopping 55.2-percent of his 3-pointers in six Big East game, tops in the league. UConn’s Alex Karaban (48.7) and Cam Spencer (48.6) rank second and third.