I Bleed Blue and White

Thursday night, Villanova plays Kutztown in an exhibition at the Wachovia Center.  For me, this is when the season starts, as the Wildcats will face a team other than themselves in front of a live audience for the first time since the loss to North Carolina.  Sure, official practice started a few weeks ago, but in reality, they are basically practicing year round, so the upcoming exhibition represents the keynote address for the 2009-2010 Villanova Wildcats.  Anyway, here are some “things you already know” articles as we draw closer to the Kutztown contest. 

• Jeff Borzello, a NBE basketball blogger, talks about the season of great expectations for Villanova basketball
• Rivals breaks down the #4 team in their Preseason 347: the Villanova Wildcats
• Rivals breaks down the supposed weaker Big East

Throughout the summer, NBE, a site dedicated to the coverage of Big East basketball, has been providing in depth reports on each team.  Today, they released their Villanova summer report written by Zach Smart, which covers key losses, key returnees, key newcomers, as well as predictions and expectations for the new look Wildcats.  Here’s a brief idea of what NBE thinks about the 2009-2010 ’Cats:

Villanova is the hands down conference favorite heading into the 2009-2010 season. With one of the nation’s top recruiting classes as well as several top contributors from last season’s Final Four team, Jay Wright could very well have the horses to make another March charge through the field.

A big part of Villanova’s success over the years has been the atmosphere of the games in which they play in.  They play against high-profile schools, in notorious arenas, with an excellent fan base.  But if you were only allowed to attend one more college basketball game, where would the game be and what would be the matchup? The Rivals College Basketball Roundtable, comprised of a group of Rivals college hoops experts, were proposed this question.  Mike Huguenin, one of the experts, responded as follows:

Give me a “Big Five” game at the Palestra in Philadelphia. The “Big Five” series isn’t what it used to be, but the tradition, history and atmosphere at a key matchup between, say, La Salle and Villanova or Villanova and Temple would be fantastic. The key words are “key matchup.” If two “Big Five” teams happen to be good in the same season – say, both in the top 20 – it would be electric and the Palestra would be rocking.

So we want to know your answer to the question, if you were only allowed to attend one more college basketball game, where would the game be and what would be the matchup?