FanPost

Villanova @ Providence: Stats and Info

USA TODAY Sports

The Villanova Wildcats will take on the Providence Friars on Tuesday, February 18th at 7 PM. The game will be aired on Fox Sports 1.

Villanova leads the head-to-head series 53-37.

Here is how the teams have performed in some statistical categories this season.

Stat

Villanova

Providence

Points per game

80.7

72.0

Rebounds per game

37.2

37

Assists per game

16.3

13.7

FG%, 3P %

46.7%, 36.4%

41.7%, 33.5%



Providence stands at 17-9, and 7-6 in the Big East. They are currently 5th in the Big East standings and 4 games behind first place Creighton. Villanova fell out of first place with their away loss to Doug McDermott and Creighton. They now see themselves in second place, a half-game behind Creighton.

Providence is coming off a dominating win over DePaul 84-61, while Villanova is coming off a loss at the hands of Creighton, 101-80.

Providence is led by leading scorer Bryce Cotton, who was just nominated as one of the 30 players chosen for the Naismith award, which represents one of the best players in college basketball. Cotton is averaging 21 PPG and a hair under 6 assists per game. An eye opening stat is that he is averaging 39.5 minutes per game, and 41.2 in league play (OT). That is insane. He has been on the court every second of every game since the Villanova game back on January 5th. However, he must be used to it by now as he has averaged over 37 minutes per game since his sophomore season.

Providence's coach, Ed Cooley, has high praise for his senior guard.

In their last matchup against the Wildcats, Cotton played 38 minutes, and contributed 25 points for the Friars. Clearly it wasn't enough, considering the Wildcats put on a show, routing Providence by a score of 91-61. That game was 42 days ago, and both teams have gotten better. The Friars have gone 7-4 since that thrashing by the Wildcats. They are now in the NCAA tournament conversation.

Key Win: Creighton Bluejays

Bad Loss: Seton Hall Pirates

Jay Wright has not only been impressed with Providence, but the Big East as a whole.

"Providence is playing good basketball and is a good team. I think our conference right now has a lot of teams playing well - St. John's, Marquette, Providence, Georgetown, Xavier and Creighton's been doing it all year. There are a lot of teams playing really well and it's going to be a tough finish.


The Friars are 1-2 vs current Top 25 teams this season. Their lone win came against first place Creighton. They have losses to Kentucky and Villanova. It looks like they will have to go on a little bit of a run to secure an at large bid, and it all starts with this game. A win would really boost their resume.

Providence plays much better basketball when they play on their hardwood. They are 12-2 this season when playing at the "Dunk."

The last time Villanova played at Providence, they left with a poor result. Providence was able to squeeze past the Wildcats 69-66. The Wildcats committed 24 turnovers, 5 of them by PG Ryan Arcidiacono.

Lets hope for a different result this time around!
Prediction: Villanova 77- Providence 62

Let us know your score prediction below in the comments!

Any other stats I missed? Let me know in the comments and I will add them up top.

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