Tomorrow afternoon, West Virginia will travel to Philadelphia to try and avenge their February home loss to Villanova in a game that could help decide who is the clear second-best Big East team.
Syracuse, now number 1 in the country, has clearly separated itself as the best team in the league, but the rest of the league is pretty wide open. There are a few teams in contention for the number two spot, and after that, so many bubble teams that are hard to distinguish.
But back to this game. Last time these two teams met, both teams had pretty balanced scoring attacks but Villanova was much more efficient and though Scottie Reynolds didn't have one of his best games, he compiled 21 points and really took over in the second half. And tomorrow afternoon is his last game at the Wachovia Center, so he's definitely going to come out shooting.
Though the final score of 82-75 showed that the game was close, the Mountaineers really never gained any steam after halftime facing an 11 point deficit.
And it didn't help that Nova outshot West Virginia in every way: 57 percent to 41 percent from the field, 46 percent to 26 percent from 3-point range and though West Virginia shot 10 more FTs, they were only 18-32 from the line whereas Villanova was 19-22.
West Virginia needs big games from Da'Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks. They are a deep team, but sometimes they have trouble scoring and that's why they need these two to really step up and hit some shots.
Now to my prediction, I think Villanova is definitely a better team, and they're on a mission since the embarrassing loss at Syracuse, but it's senior night, it's a noon game and I just have a feeling West Virginia is going to come up with a big win. I think Scottie starts out ice cold and ends up with 17 points on somewhere around 24 shots.
Final Prediction: West Virginia 78 Villanova 75
- Nick
(Now watch Scottie score 42 and make me eat my words.)
Pretty accurate prediction. Scottie pulled through for me. Haha.
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