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January 18 Sheet

Villanova at Rutgers (-1) - 5:00pm Pacific
This is a great spot for the Scarlet Knights to get back on track. Rutgers was surprised at home by non-conference foe LaSalle in overtime and then lost to #3 Pittsburgh and at #9 Notre Dame. They have now lost three straight games, but clearly the last two were excusable against top 10 teams. I do not believe there is anything at all wrong with Rutgers. This is a solid basketball team who can be great at home. The Scarlet Knights were 4-1 vs Top 25 teams at home last year and played very well vs #3 Pitt here two games back in a game that went down to the wire. Rutgers followed that up with a good effort at Notre Dame as they led at half-time and into the 2nd half before faltering. The Irish went 22-of-23 from the foul line compared to Rutgers 5-of-9. Certainly Villanova is not the same caliber as either Pitt or ND.

Rutgers features a great backcourt trio in Jerome Coleman (17.2ppg), Mike Sherrod (4.8ppg, 4.1apg), and Ricky Sheilds (13.6ppg). All three apply great defensive pressure as well combining for 5.9 steals per game. Versatile 6-10 forward Herve Lamizana can be a nightmare for opponents when he is in the mood. Senior center Kareem Wright is having his best season ever and junior forward Sean Axani is a great role player.

Villanova is coming off a big road win at St. John's, as the Red Storm were coming off big win at UCLA and cross country trip. The final score was a bit misleading, as Villanova led most of the game only to find themselves down by 2 in the final minutes before pulling ahead late. Free throws mostly accounted for the final 9 point margin. It should be noted that the Cats were sky high for the game as four members of their great freshman class all hailed from the New York area. They wanted the win at MSG badly and could experience some letdown here. Tonight it will be a homecoming for Nova starting freshman guard Randy Hoye (NJ high school player of the year) and you can be sure that the knowledgeable fans at The RAC will be on him from the start. Four of Nova's top 8 scorers are true freshman so it would be hard to imagine the Cats being a successful road team in conference play this season. Nova lost seven straight true away games to end last season and are 1-2 in true away games so far this year. Look for their road struggles to continue tonight.

Rutgers 1 UNIT

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