Villanova will look to stay hot on Saturday when it travels to Chicago to take on DePaul.
The Blue Demons had a strong run through non-conference play, finishing with a 9-1 record that included decent wins over Rutgers and Louisville. The lone loss was a close four-point defeat to a strong Loyola Chicago team. However, things have gone off the rails for DePaul since the start of conference play, as the Blue Demons have stumbled to an 0-3 Big East mark with losses to Butler, Providence and St. John’s.
Much of DePaul’s strength comes inside the arc. They’ve hit 52.1% overall from 2-point range and have been especially good right around the rim. At the other end of the floor, DePaul hold opponents to just 44.9% on their 2-point attempts, 42nd best in the country, per KenPom.
Conversely, the Blue Demons have struggled from beyond the arc, both shooting and defending.
DePaul has done a good job filtering opponents into the strength of that defense, limiting 3-point attempts and forcing a lot of attempts near the rim. Haslametrics ranks the Blue Demons 30th in the country in near-proximity defense.
This presents an interesting situation for Villanova’s offense. The Wildcats haven’t been shooting the ball particularly well but have found success making a concreted effort to get to the rim more over the last few games. That sets the stage for an interesting chess match between the coaches.
The Blue Demons will likely want to force Villanova to prove it can beat them by overcoming the defensive strength at the rim. Will Villanova oblige and continue its recent efforts to get to the basket, or will Jay Wright prefer to try to generate some open looks from 3 and perhaps loosen the DePaul 2-point defense in the process? It will be interesting to see how things play out around the rim and how Villanova looks to attack offensively.
The Villanova defense has been much improved lately, and they’ll need another strong defensive performance as DePaul will likely look to go inside early and often. The Wildcats did an excellent job against Creighton’s size in Wednesday’s win, in particular Jermaine Samuels and Bryan Antoine. That’s something they’ll have to replicate on Saturday.
DePaul has also been a decent rebounding team, grabbing 41 per game and coming down with 33% of their offensive rebound opportunities. ‘Nova will have hold its own on the glass on Saturday.
Javon Freeman-Liberty leads the way for DePaul with 20.6 points per game. He adds 7.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.6 steals and hits a respectable 36.5% of his 3-point attempts.
David Jones contributes 15.7 points, 8.2 rebounds, two assists and 1.7 steals. Brandon Johnson adds 11.5 points and 7.4 rebounds. Nick Ongenda rounds out the double figure scorers for DePaul with 10.3 points per game. He adds 4.5 rebounds and 2.6 blocks.
Philmon Gebrewhit chips in 7.8 points and 3.5 rebounds while Javan Johnson averages 6.3 points and 2.3 rebounds. Jalen Taylor adds 5.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists.
DePaul will be anxious to get back on track and prevent falling too far out of the mix in the Big East standings. Villanova, meanwhile, will look to win its fourth straight game and keep pace atop the conference standings.
The game will tip at 2 p.m. and air on FS1.
