By Sean Kennedy
Today’s Action
8:00 PM: Villanova (0-0, 0-0 Big East) vs. Lafayette (0-0, 0-0 Patriot) – Fox Sports 2
Now a member of the new-look 10-team Big East Conference, Villanova will first kick off a tough non-conference schedule with a home meeting Friday night against the Lafayette Leopards. The Wildcats clearly improved as the season progressed last year, largely due to the progress made by then-freshman point guard Ryan Arcidiacono. Arcidiacono should only continue to improve this season, which is bad news for the rest of the league as he already led Villanova in assists, three-pointers, and minutes as a freshman. The rest of the roster still stacks deep, including returning leading scorer JayVaughn Pinkston, who was among the best in the nation at getting to the foul line last season and should really benefit from college basketball’s new hand-check rule. Overall, the Wildcats will return four starters from last season, only losing Mouphtaou Yarou from that group. Yarou’s departure does create a huge void on the glass and Daniel Ochefu will be counted on for more responsibility in that area.
As for Villanova’s opponent, Ken Pomeroy’s preseason ratings rank the Leopards as the 197th-best team in the nation, projecting a solid offense with a very porous defense. Those marks make sense as the team had the best points per possession mark in the Patriot League last year, but no longer around are the team’s two best defenders from last season in Tony Johnson and Levi Giese. The man to stop will be 6’7″ junior Seth Hinrichs, who averaged 14.5 ppg on 46.1% shooting as a sophomore. Hinrichs can hurt you both behind the arc and in the painted area, so he’ll be a tough assigment for the Wildcats defense. The Leopards are counting on freshman Nick Lindner to take over the reigns at point guard so look for Villanova to hound him defensively and see if they can’t force some mistakes from Lindner in his first collegiate game.
Lafayette is no pushover and should make some noise in the Patriot League this season, but Villanova is too deep and complete a team to fall to the Leopards. Look for the Wildcats to win this battle of the big cats and move to 1-0 on the season.
12:00 AM: Drexel (0-0, 0-0 CAA) @ #22 UCLA (0-0, 0-0 Pac-12)
A preseason conference favorite last season, Drexel instead experienced a very disappointing season brought down by both poor shooting and a number of injuries, including a season-ending ankle injury to one of their leading scorers in guard Chris Fouch. Fouch will be back along with leading scorer Damion Lee and fellow backcourt mate Frantz Massenat. That trio will once again assume the bulk of the scoring load but will have to be more efficient about it this season, as Lee shot just 42.5% last season, while Massenat and Fouch weren’t even above 40% (although Fouch’s numbers were across just 3 games). The Dragons have lost arguably their strongest defender in Derrick Thomas and the team’s best rebounder in Daryl McCoy. The team will need incoming freshman Mohamed Bah to be an immediate factor in that frontcourt rotation if they’re to have any semblance of balance.
In southern California, new headcoach Steve Alford takes over for a fired Ben Howland, trying to break the cycle of high preseason expectations followed by underachieving campaigns. Indications are that Alford will run a much more high-paced offensive attack than Bruins fans have been used to in recent years. With Shabazz Muhammad (now with the Timberwolves) and Larry Drew II no longer donning the blue and gold, the Bruins will look to a pair of sophomores to carry the scoring load in guard Jordan Adams and swingman Kyle Anderson. Both players are multi-dimensional players with professional aspirations who should provide a tough test for the Dragons. Drexel will catch a break as forward Travis Wear will not playing as he recovers from an appendectomy; twin brother David Wear will assume a larger role in his absence.
UCLA has more talent than the majority of the teams in the country and should be rejuvenated with a fresh voice shouting instructions from the bench. Drexel is no slouch but it’s very difficult to travel cross-country and play at an unusual time of the night. Kudos to the Dragons for scheduling a tough non-conference opponent but they’re likely to start the year with a loss as a result.
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