Today the Villanova Wildcats will take on the Israeli national basketball team in the 1st game of EuroJam 2011. The game will take place in Amsterdam and will start at 6 p.m. local time, which is 12 p.m. on the east coast.

Villanova fell to Senegal on Tuesday, and lost to them in a rematch on Wednesday. Senegal is ranked in the 30's by FIBA, while Israel is ranked as the 27th best team, so the competition will only get tougher for the 'Cats.

Israel features NBA player Omri Casspi, who played for the Los Angeles Kings before being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers last season. Prior to that he played in the Israeli League. He's averaged just over 9 points per game in the NBA along with 4 rebounds. (For the record, we hate and envy Casspi who is dating TNB favorite supermodel Bar Refaeli)

Villanova will need strong play out of it's veterans to compete in this event - so it's up to Mouphtaou Yarou, Maalik Wayns, Dominic Cheek and Isaiah Armwood to lead the line while the young guys hopefully don't get too wide of eyes.

You can follow Nova Athletics on Twitter, who will be tweeting about the game, as well as the EuroJam Twitter account. We'll post updates as we hear them in the comments, where you're free to join us to talk 'Nova basketball.