Villanova Wildcats 17-5 (8-3) vs Georgetown Hoyas 13-10 (5-7)
Where: Capital One Arena (Washington, D.C.)
When: Saturday, Feb. 7 at 12:00 PM
Betting Line: Villanova -4.5 (subject to change)
How to Watch: TNT
How to Listen: Villanova Sports Radio Network
Net Rankings: Villanova 32, Georgetown 94 (Quad 2)
KenPom: Villanova 28, Georgetown 82
Torvik: Villanova 31, Georgetown 81
AboutGeorgetown: The Hoyas come into this one on a four-game winning streak since the loss to Villanova on January 21, with wins at Providence and Butler, coupled with home wins over DePaul and Creighton. In the previous matchup, Malik Mack was held to 5 points on 1/14 from the field. Since that performance, the junior is averaging 15.8 points on 42.8% shooting. He as also gone to the line 23 times, only missing once. It will go a long way towards a victory if Mack can return to his inefficient ways. Containing his backcourt mate, KJ Lewis, is also at the top of the priority list. The Arizona transfer has averaged 17.8 points over his past four outings, with 26 and 22 points against Providence and Creighton respectively. Lewis only scored 12 points on 4/10 shooting in the last game against the Wildcats, with much of that coming when the game was essentially out of hand.
Notes on Nova: The Wildcats put forward an impressive performance against the Pirates on Wednesday, with only the turnovers being a cause for concern. Georgetown is going to present similar problems as Seton Hall did on that end, with the comparable struggles on the offensive side. If the Wildcats can score in the upper 60s, they should feel good about their chances of success.
In the game against the Hall, Kevin Willard went ten players deep fairly early in the game. At one point, there was an all-bench lineup out there (with the exception of Bryce Lindsay). After the game, Willard indicated that he would like to get Chris Jeffrey more involved going forward. I would expect the freshman guard to play more than 4 minutes against the Hoyas.