On Wednesday, Villanova will take the court on senior night looking to avenge an earlier loss to the Creighton Bluejays.

As ‘Nova fans remember all too well, that last meeting between the teams on February 13 did not go well for the ‘Cats, who fell 86-70. Creighton shot 59.3% for the game and won points in the paint 36-20. Villanova simply wasn’t able to slow down the Bluejays offensively and couldn’t keep up as a result.

“A big game,” Jay Wright said. “They handled us pretty easily out there last time.”

One area of improvement Wright will be looking for is defending the 3-point line. Creighton connected on 46.2% of its long-range attempts in the first meeting, including hitting 60% of its first-half 3s. “I hope we can defend the 3-point line a little better,” Wright said. “They just shot lights out. But it wasn’t just their 3s last time. Their crisp and precise execution offensively was beyond our defense and I hope we’ve caught up.”

One of the things that makes Creighton so difficult to defend is that it has a bunch of players who can do damage and they can do it in a bunch of different ways. Villanova saw that first-hand the first time these teams played as four Bluejays scored in double figures and two reached the 20-point mark.

In the first half, it was Marcus Zegarowski, who scored 17 of his 25 points in the period. In the second half, Mitch Ballock took over as the hot hand, scoring 17 of his 20 points. In that second half, Ballock hit 6-7 from the floor and 5-6 from 3. Meanwhile, while Zegarowski and Ballock were taking turns with the hot hand, Christian Bishop and Damien Jefferson were quietly posting double-doubles. Bishop finished with 16 points and 10 boards while Jefferson added 10 points and 10 rebounds.

With that quartet, Creighton can attack you in a multitude of ways. The Bluejays can bomb away from 3, they can get to the rim, they can punish you in the pick and roll, or they can get out in transition. Combine all of that with creative design in the halfcourt offense and precise execution and you have a team that is incredibly difficult to guard.

“I think they’re the most difficult team to prepare for,” Wright said. “I think they do a great job, they just make you pick your poison and some teams have the ability but they’re not smart enough or disciplined enough to find the open guy. They are very disciplined and whatever you’re trying to take away they find the opening. We’ve gotta defend them as a team, we can’t get into one-on-one isolations with them, they’re too good and we’ve gotta be ready to step up for each other and help each other out.”

As for how to improve on the defensive performance from last time against Creighton, in addition to the 3-point line that was already mentioned, Wright hopes to see improvement in the pick and roll defense. “Playing the pick and roll is not just the two guys in the pick and roll, it’s a five-man game plan and it takes five men executing,” Wright said. “I think we didn’t do that at all, we got caught in two-on-two and they just sliced us up. We gotta play it as a team and do a better job this time.”

Wright made it pretty clear that he’ll be looking for a better effort at playing defense as a unit with specific hopes that it will lead to better 3-point and pick and roll defense. Those areas will certainly be worth watching Wednesday night.

We’ll also be keeping an eye on Collin Gillespie and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. While Villanova has a balanced attack, Gillespie is clearly the engine while Robinson-Earl has the ability to make an outsized impact on the game, and as a result in games where they are limited ‘Nova really feels it. That was evident in the last meeting between these teams, as Gillespie and Robinson-Earl combined for 16 points on 6-25 shooting including just 2-12 from 3. Early production from this duo on Wednesday night would be a welcome sign.

One area where Villanova had success in the last meeting was on the offensive glass and in second-chance points. The ‘Cats grabbed 13 offensive rebounds while only giving up five and turned that into a 17-6 advantage in second-chance points. Creighton’s season-long numbers indicate that Villanova should be able to replicate that success.

Ultimately, it will come down to the defensive performance. The ‘Cats will have to be better on that end if they hope to win the game, and that’s where the majority of our attention will be.

It’s going to be a tough test for the ‘Cats and it will be interesting to see how they respond. The game is scheduled for an 8:30 tipoff on FS1.