Searching for W Hoyas welcome Villy

January 27, 2014 - Having fallen in five of their last six games, Georgetown welcomes Villanova, ranked fourth/fifth nationally, to Verizon Center tonight. Tip-off is set for 9p.

The teams seemingly are headed in different, with the Hoyas (11-8, 3-5 in BIG EAST) losing four straight. 'Nova is 5-1 over the last six, and stands 17-2/6-1.

As discussed ad nauseam here, G'Town's troubles largely stem from mid-season roster reduction; the Hoyas don't have junior Joshua Smith (academics) and Jabril Trawick available, losing both a couple of weeks ago. Resultantly, head coach John Thompson III and his staff have been searching for lineups and performers capable of making up for their absences, and the new penchant of foes packing the lane while also daring shots to be made.

Villy on the other hand, is in excellent form; having recovered from last week's home court pasting by Creighton with an OT win at Marquette, Jay Wright's team is amongst the BIG EAST's top three in rebounding (off/def), assist/turnover ratio, steals, assists, blocked shots, rebounding margin, rebounding offense, scoring margin and scoring offense.

Conversely, the Hoyas are well situated conference-wise in scoring defense (fourth), field goal percentage (third), field goal percentage defense (first), and three point field goal percentage defense (second).

Any discussion of G'Town's offense starts (and has ended) with it's backcourt of senior Markel Starks and D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera. The duo accounts for 47% of Georgetown's points, while playing virtually the entire game. They are the team's only double figure scorers.

'Nova has four players scoring more than nine points a game: Juniors JayVaughn Pinkston and Darrun Hilliard, senior James Bell and freshman Ryan Arcidiacono.

For complete league stats, see BIGEAST.org.

Brief observations of the Wildcats are available on our Premium Court message board.

Those able to attend the game can do so with tickets purchased here.

TV watchers can view the game live, on Fox Sports 1. For radio listeners, Rich Chvotkin's call will be heard on ESPN 980 AM.

Compliment/substitute both with our real time, in-game chat.