The Villanova Wildcats have announced their 2012-2013 basketball schedule, which can be found immediately below. Game times are not yet official for many games, but this will give you a good chance to figure out what games you may be able to attend, and we can officially start discussing our prospects for this coming season now that we know who will be playing.
2012-13 VILLANOVA MEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE
Thursday, Nov. 1 - Carleton at Villanova (Exhibition), TBD
Friday, Nov. 9 - UDC at Villanova, TBD (2K Sports Classic)
Sunday, Nov. 11 - Marshall at Villanova, TBD (2K Sports Classic)
Thursday, Nov. 15 - Villanova vs. Purdue, 9 pm, ESPN2* (2K Sports Classic)
Friday, Nov. 16 - Villanova vs. Alabama/Oregon State, 5 pm/7 pm, ESPN2/ESPNU* (2K Sports Classic)
Tuesday, Nov. 20 - Columbia at Villanova, TBD
Thursday, Nov. 25 - Villanova at La Salle, TBD
Saturday, Dec. 1 - Villanova at Vanderbilt, 5 pm, ESPN2* (Big East/SEC Challenge)
Wednesday, Dec. 5 - Temple at Villanova, 9 pm, ESPN2*
Saturday, Dec. 8 - Villanova at Penn, TBD
Tuesday, Dec. 11 - St. Joseph's at Villanova, 7 pm, ESPNU
Sunday, Dec. 16 - Delaware at Villanova, 4 pm, ESPNU
Saturday, Dec. 22 - Villanova at Monmouth, TBD
Friday, Dec. 28 - NJIT at Villanova, TBD
Wednesday, Jan. 2 - St. John's at Villanova, 8p.m., ESPNU*
Wednesday, Jan. 9 - Villanova at USF, TBA, Local/ESPN3.com
Saturday, Jan. 12 - Villanova at Syracuse, TBA, Local/ESPN3.com
Wednesday, Jan. 16 - Pittsburgh at Villanova, 7p.m., ESPNU*
Saturday, Jan. 19 - Villanova at Providence, TBA, Local/ESPN3.com
Tuesday, Jan. 22 - Louisville at Villanova, TBA, Local/ESPN3.com
Saturday, Jan. 26 - Syracuse at Villanova, 11a.m., ESPNU*
Wednesday, Jan. 30 - Villanova at Notre Dame, 7p.m., ESPN2*
Sunday, Feb. 3 - Providence at Villanova, TBA, Local/ESPN3.com
Tuesday, Feb. 5 - Villanova at DePaul, 7p.m., ESPN2*
Saturday, Feb. 9 - USF at Villanova, 3p.m., ESPNU*
Tuesday, Feb. 12 - Villanova at Cincinnati, TBA, Local/ESPN3.com
Saturday, Feb. 16 - Villanova at Connecticut, Noon, ESPN/ESPN2*
Monday, Feb. 18 - Rutgers at Villanova, 9p.m., ESPNU*
Saturday, Feb. 23 - Marquette at Villanova, 6p.m., ESPN/ESPN2*
Monday, Feb. 25 - Villanova at Seton Hall, 9p.m., ESPNU*
Sunday, March 3 - Villanova at Pittsburgh, TBA, Local/ESPN3.com
Wednesday, March 6 - Georgetown at Villanova, 7p.m., ESPN/ESPN2*
* National Television
Italics indicates a Villanova Home game
Official press release information from the Big East Conference, which announced their schedule today as well, can be found after The Jump.
This season every Big East men's basketball game will be on television and 56% of them will be on national broadcasts. Almost 80% of the games will feature at least one 2012 NCAA Tournament team. ESPN and ESPN2 will carry 45 of those conference games with 24 more on the college-only ESPNU. All games that are not nationally broadcast will be available to stream live on ESPN3.com.
"BIG EAST men’s basketball and unparalleled national media exposure have always been synonymous," said BIG EAST Commissioner Mike Aresco. "The 2012-13 schedule is unmatched in its scope of telecasts nationally, regionally and locally. Our coaches and student-athletes are committed to excellence at the highest level. I know the upcoming season will be full of outstanding and exciting play."
Among the many promotional aspects of the schedule is ESPN's "Rivalry Week," which will feature 11 Big East games, concluding with Villanova hosting Rutgers on February 18th (on ESPNU). Villanova will also host St. John's on a "New Years" game on January 2nd (also on ESPNU).
The Big East tournament will be held from March 12-16th at Madison Square Garden this Spring -- the 31st time that the event will be held at the World's Most Famous Arena.
The Big East also announced a number of non-conference games with national television coverage, which includes four more game dates and times for Villanova:
Read the full release at ESPN.com or on BigEast.org for the full listing of every Big East conference game.
Villanova will appear on national television (on ESPN networks) 17 times in the 2012-13 season according to this schedule. That is down from last year, which had the Wildcats on nationally about 19 times, but it isn't a significant drop. Many of this season's games were picked up by the smaller ESPNU, however, which reaches 73 million homes, but isn't as prominent as the other ESPN-owned networks.
Villanova gets a couple of two-game homestands during the season and gets to finish out the regular season schedule with a home rivalry game against the Georgetown Hoyas.
Original Post:
The Big East plans to release it's men's basketball schedule today at noon, according to a tweet spotted by our colleagues over at Casual Hoya. Villanova will likely announce it's full slate of games soon as well, possibly before the end of the week, though we already know of a few of them. The league will continue to be featured across the ESPN television networks this season, including games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and the digital-only ESPN3.com.
ESPN's "Big Monday" series will continue, opening with a January 14th tilt between Louisville and UConn. Both teams have recently appeared in the NCAA's Final Four, though UConn will not be eligible to participate in any postseason games after this season. The conference has also announced two games to be held on MLK Day (January 21st) on ESPN: Cincinnati at Syracuse (3:30pm) and Georgetown at Notre Dame (7:30pm).
Thanks to some significant talent at building team and conference RPI numbers, almost 80 percent of the Big East conference games will include at least one team that played in last year's NCAA Tournament. More than half (56%) of Big East games will be shown live on national television.
As of this post we know of the following non-conference games for Villanova:
- November 3rd - vs. Carleton University (Canada) - WFC (Exhibition)
- November 9th - vs. University of D.C. (Div. II) - Pavilion (2k Sports Classic)
- November 11th - vs. Marshall University - Pavilion (2k Sports Classic)
- November 15th - vs. Purdue University - Madison Square Garden (2k Sports Classic)
- November 16th - vs. Alabama OR Oregon State - Madison Square Garden (2k Sports Classic)
- November 20th - vs. Columbia University - Pavilion
- November 25th - at La Salle - Tom Gola Arena (Big 5)
- December 1st, 5:00 pm - at Vanderbilt - Nashville, TN (Big East/SEC Challenge)
- December 11th - vs. St. Joseph's (PA) - Pavilion
- December 16th - vs. University of Delaware - Pavilion
- December 22nd, 7:00 pm - at Monmouth University - Multipurpose Activity Center
Not a member of VU Hoops? Sign up and start commenting! Follow us on social media for regular updates as well. You can also subscribe to our RSS Feed.