The Game: #5 Villanova (1-0) vs. Penn (0-1) 
Location: The Pavilion in Villanova, PA
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Broadcast: ‘Nova Nation All-Access and ESPN-950 AM
Brief Rundown: Villanova won their season opener over Fairleigh Dickinson by 23 points, but they struggled to pull away from the Knights in the 1st half. It wasn’t until the 2nd half that the upperclassmen, namely Corey Stokes and Corey Fisher, led the Cats to victory. Villanova introduced all 6 of its new players to the home crowd, and none of them disappointed in the time they saw. This is the first Big 5 matchup of the year for both schools. Villanova has dominated the City Series recently and will look to continue that trend.
Penn opened their campaign with a 15-point loss at Penn State on Friday. It wasn’t a terrible game for the Quakers, as Penn State looks to be an up-and-coming team in the Big Ten. Penn actually kept it close until late in the game when the Nittany Lions pulled away. Tyler Bernardini and Jack Eggleston did the majority of the work for the Quakers, and look to be key players this season. Senior guard Darren Smith was 1-11 from the field and 0-7 from beyond the arc. So, I guess he likes to shoot. Let’s keep an eye on that fellow.
Last Meeting: Villanova beat Penn 69-47 behind Dante Cunningham and Corey Stokes.
What I Want To See: The defense that came out in the 2nd half against FDU. That was an embarrassing performance in the opening 20 minutes. Chalk it up to pregame jitters for the team, but that can’t happen again, especially in a Big 5 game. Villanova is the hated school in the Big 5, and Penn will be gunning to ruin their night. Suffocate their perimeter shooting early and build a lead and then put the nail in the coffin.
Links:
…Lets Go Nova!…what’s everyone feeling for this game?…what do you want to see?…
Brian
November 16, 2009
Denzel in the crowd… should be a fun game think Jay is going to be smart again and try a lot of different looks i think it is a good thing in these games to really experiment with what we have