Villanova is set to continue Big Five play on Saturday when it hosts St. Joe’s for the latest iteration of the Holy War. The Hawks enter the matchup with a 4-3 record, coming off consecutive wins over Georgetown and Binghamton.

KenPom ranks St. Joe’s No. 203 overall (200th offensively, 220th defensively) while Haslametrics has the Hawks slightly higher at No. 162 overall (166th offensively, 170th defensively).

St. Joe’s has taken an interesting approach on offense. The Hawks have largely relied on launching from 3 but convert at a slightly below average 33.2%. Meanwhile, they have had success converting from the mid-range and near the basket, ranking 37th and 93rd respectively in FG% from those areas, but largely eschew attempts in those zones, ranking 194th in mid-range attempt rate and 346th in near-proximity attempt rate.

St. Joe’s has had some turnover issues, averaging 14.1 per game. The Hawks also haven’t gotten to the line a ton and have converted just 66.4% of their attempts from the charity stripe. The result has been a slightly below average offensive team that averages 72.9 points per game.

Defensively, St. Joe’s has done a good job limiting opponent’s 3-point attempts, but opponent’s have had success converting the long-range attempts that they have gotten up. The Hawks haven’t forced a ton of turnovers, leading to opponents getting a lot of shot attempts up. However, outside of the 3-point line, the Hawks have defended reasonably well, and as we noted, they have done a good job of limiting those 3-point attempts. St. Joe’s has been somewhat susceptible to offensive rebounds.

“They’ve got great lengthy defensively,” Jay Wright said. “They’re fifth in the country in defensive 3-point field goals attempted, so they’re really great using their length not allowing you to get off 3s.” Wright noted that Penn did a good job of that as well and indicated that he thought the team didn’t do a good job of recognizing open 3s in that game.

The Hawks are led by 6-8 senior Taylor Funk, who averages 17.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Funk has also been the Hawks’ best 3-point shooter, connecting on an impressive 52.8% of his long-range attempts. He had 17 points in last year’s meeting between the teams.

St. Joe’s has also been getting great production from sophomore guard Jordan Hall, who has great size at 6-7. Hall is averaging 13.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.3 steals this season. Hall also had 17 points against Villanova last year, adding six rebounds and six assists.

Rounding out the double figure scorers for the Hawks is 6-10 senior Ejike Obinna, who chips in 12.7 points and 7.1 rebounds. He’s hitting an efficient 61.4% of his field goal attempts.

Freshman guard Erik Reynolds adds 8.6 points while junior guard Cameron Brown chips in 7.9 points.

Junior guards Dahmir Bishop and Jack Forrest add 4.3 and four points per game, respectively.

“You go in, you look at Funk and Hall and they’re great players and they’ve had some huge games,” Wright said. “You know they can just go off. We also know, in Big Five games, that can happen sometimes but so can a Brown or a Reynolds or a guy can come off the bench and just go crazy on you. We just kind of prepare for these Big Five games where we know we’re gonna have to be able to adjust during the game.”

The 3-point line will be interesting on Saturday. St. Joe’s hasn’t shot it particularly well from deep, but that hasn’t stopped them from firing them up and the Hawks can do damage from long-range based simply on volume. We’ll be watching how Villanova choses to defend and if the Wildcats attempt to run the Hawks off the 3-point line. On the other side of the ball, we noted that St. Joe’s has been good at limiting long-range attempts of opponents. Meanwhile, Villanova is never shy about launching from deep. We noted Wright’s assessment that the team didn’t do a great job of recognizing open 3s against Penn on Wednesday, so it will be interesting to see how those factors play out on Saturday. Both teams will be looking to have the advantage from the 3-point line.

Wright also mentioned rebounding when discussing keys to the game. Rebounding has been an issue at times this season, though the Wildcats have been much better in that department over the last two games, running up a 91-56 advantage on the glass. St. Joe’s has been a decent if not overwhelming rebounding team this season, grabbing 39.3 per game. The Hawks have some good size, and it will be interesting to see if 'Nova can continue its improved rebounding.

‘Nova had an uncharacteristic night with turnovers on Wednesday night against Penn. The ‘Cats weren’t terrible, committing nine turnovers, but they only managed seven assists, creating a rare negative assist-to-turnover ratio. In addition, after struggling to force turnovers a season ago, the Wildcats have been much improved in that department this year. But on Wednesday, they forced only 10 turnovers against a team that has a bit of penchant for giveaways. The one-turnover margin was much lower than the Wildcats are used to having, and both committing slightly more turnovers than usual while forcing fewer than usual likely played a role in a somewhat underwhelming offensive performance.

St. Joe’s has poor turnover numbers both offensively and defensively, so that should be an advantage for the Wildcats. In addition to their impact on the game, we’ll simply be watching the turnover numbers to see if Wednesday’s performance looks like a one-off or if there are signs of a potential trend.

For the third straight game, ‘Nova has all the advantages on paper. And for the third straight game, we’ll offer the reminder to never take anything for granted, particularly in a Big Five game. So far, the ‘Cats haven’t had any issues with any Big Five magic or chaos, and they’ll look to continue that trend on Saturday. But Big Five voodoo isn’t the only concern.

Anytime you’re facing players like Funk and Hall, you need to be wary. They have the ability to takeover games, and if one or both of them gets it going offensively things could get dicey quickly. In addition, the sheer volume of 3-point attempts is cause for caution. Launching from deep at such a volume means a team doesn’t even have to be particularly hot to change the narrative of a game. As such, we’ll be watching not only the raw numbers from 3-point range but also the chess match between coaches at both ends in regards to defending the 3-point line and how to attack/counter offensively.

Tipoff at the Finn is scheduled for noon and the game will air on FS1.