Villanova, Butler

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On Wednesday night, No. 1 Villanova travels to Indiana to play No. 14 Butler in a Big East basketball battle at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.

After winning the National Championship for the Big East last year, the Villanova Wildcats have continued their winning ways under head coach Jay Wright. As we enter January, his Wildcats sit at 14-0 and are ranked No. 1 in the entire country. Led by Player of the Year candidate Josh Hart, Nova has plenty of experience in big games, which bodes well for them in this road test.


On the other hand, the Butler Bulldogs bring a healthy mix of newcomers and veterans to their revamped roster under head coach Chris Holtmann. Despite losing Roosevelt Jones and Kellen Dunham, who were both key contributors for the past few years, there is still plenty of talent on the roster. Kelan Martin leads the Dawgs with his tremendous ability to score early and often.

As Big East foes, these teams met twice last season, playing both in Hinkle Fieldhouse and the Pavilion. The Wildcats came out on top in both battles, with a five-point victory in Indianapolis and a 10-point win at Villanova.

With Villanova traveling to Butler on Wednesday, the spotlight will not be on past results. Butler is 12-2 on the season. They have tough losses to Indiana State and St. John?s by a combined five points and are sitting at No. 18 in the most recent AP poll. Villanova, on the other hand, remains undefeated and is the top-ranked team in the country.

It is no easy task to play on the road in college basketball, especially in the famed Hinkle Fieldhouse. Butler students are still on winter break, but that does not mean that Hinkle will not be filled to the brim. The place will be rocking, and all 9,144 seats will be filled out in their entirety.

A win at home against Villanova would more than solidify Butler as a real threat to make a mark on college basketball this season. And with the tip on Wednesday approaching, let?s take a deeper look into previewing the battle.

 

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Starters

Villanova: Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins, Darryl Reynolds
Butler: Tyler Lewis, Kamar Baldwin, Kelan Martin, Andrew Chrabascz, Tyler Wideman
This game will be about the stars, Kelan Martin and Josh Hart (I will get to that later), but there is more than just those two.

Villanova?s Jalen Brunson is the type of player who can explode with big outbursts of points, as we saw when he dropped 27 on 10th ranked Creighton last week. Then there is forward Kris Jenkins, who is obviously best known for burying the game-winning three-pointer in the National Championship game last season.

Also, Mikal Bridges and Darryl Reynolds are not to be overlooked. Bridges is a solid three-point shooter (38.1 percent), who the Wildcats can typically depend on to knock down at least one per game. Reynolds, on the other hand, is a low usage player who nonetheless plays a large role. He averages nearly one block per game, which leads the team.

As the point guard for Butler, Tyler Lewis has had an outstanding start to the season, despite his height (5?11?) and lack of scoring (7.8 points). He dishes out 4.8 assists per game, which is more than satisfactory when considering his low turnover rate of just 1.3 per game. He is knocking down 41.7 percent of his threes this year after a dreadful 29.2 percent mark last year.


Kamar Baldwin has emerged as a stand-out freshman for Holtmann?s Dawgs. Baldwin is also knocking down around 40 percent of his threes and is an elite defender. Andrew Chrabascz is the second leading scorer for the Bulldogs and is a do-it-all forward. The 6?9″ senior is burying 46.7 percent of his threes and is second on the team in assists.


Tyler Wideman, like Reynolds for Nova, is a tough match-up, despite his respectively low usage rate. Wideman has the ability to knockdown the mid-range jumper, although he typically sticks to post-play and rebounding.