Marquette vs. Villanova: 2019-20 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

Marquette Basketball is fresh off its finest team performance of the year. Can the Golden Eagles take that play on the road at Villanova?

TV Schedule: Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 8:30 p.m. EST (FS1)

Location: Finneran Pavilion (Villanova, Pa.)

Attention, Big East fans – you might want to find your way to FS1 on Wednesday night.

Following no. 23 Creighton’s trip to no. 10 Seton Hall, no. 18 Marquette squares off with no. 15 Villanova in a matchup featuring two programs eager for a W. The Wildcats is in the midst of a rare three-game skid, while the Golden Eagles are searching for their first win in Philadelphia since Jan. 2012.

Marquette (17-6, 7-4) and Villanova (17-6, 7-4) are deadlocked in a three-way tie with Creighton for second-place in the Big East. Though Seton Hall has opened up a sizable three-game lead on the rest of the conference, Wednesday night’s game at the Finn still carries massive weight on future seedings in both the conference and NCAA tournaments.

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February has provided a startling wake-up call for Villanova; the Wildcats sandwiched a buzzer-beater loss at Butler between home defeats to the aforementioned Bluejays and Pirates. Each isolated loss is pretty defensible, and there isn’t really one stat to explain the recent struggles. Villanova lost the three-point battle against Creighton, couldn’t get a stop against Butler and struggled in the paint against Seton Hall. One note: Jeremiah Robinson-Earl has hit a bit of the freshman wall, shooting just 6-28 in these last three losses. Marquette will likely sag well off JRE on Wednesday night, using extra defenders to corral Saddiq Bey and Collin Gillespie.

Even after an encouraging performance against Butler, a defensive strategy is not exactly Marquette’s forte. The Golden Eagles, who have won six of seven, make their hay with their high-powered offense, which ranks inside the top-10 in the nation. Their three-point shooting has cooled off from scorching to merely decent, but they continue to get to the free throw line at an impressive rate and have made relative strides inside the arc. Markus Howard still leads the nation with 27.4 ppg, and Steve Wojciechowski is finding plenty of offense from his secondary scoring options in Sacar Anim, Koby McEwen, and Brendan Bailey. That perimeter triumvirate is averaging 34.1 ppg, 16.4 rpg, and 5.5 apg on 37 percent three-point shooting in Big East play.

On the surface, these may seem like two ships passing in the night. But this meeting is eerily similar to last year’s matchup in Philadelphia, when the Golden Eagles entered the Pavilion as winners of 12 of 13, while VU limped in on a three-game skid. Villanova, of course, pulled out a 67-61 comeback win and went on to grab the conference championship. Can Marquette flip the script this week?

Bey has been phenomenal during the Wildcats’ last nine games, averaging 18.9 ppg and canning 55.1 percent of his threes on 7.2 attempts per game. Bailey feels like a natural fit to guard VU’s 6-foot-8 wing, but in the first meeting, Bailey spent more time on the streaky Jermaine Samuels, leaving Anim and McEwen to tag team Bey. He finished with nine points on 4-9 shooting in just 24 minutes as he battled foul trouble.

Howard, meanwhile, will look to get going on Wednesday night after providing “just” 17 points on 4-11 shooting against Butler. While the Bulldogs put together an effective game plan against Howard this year, holding him to 32 percent shooting from the field in their two contests, Villanova has never really found the antidote for the All-American. Howard has averaged over 23 ppg across eight career games vs. VU, which even includes a goose egg against the Wildcats as a freshman. Jay Wright looked to use bigger defenders on Howard in the previous matchup, though Gillespie also looms as a defensive option.

Marquette has built an impressive 10-6 record across the top two quadrants. Away from home, however, MU is yet to put together a statement win away from the friendly confines of the Fiserv Forum. Wednesday provides a primetime opportunity for the Golden Eagles to back up their newfound AP Poll support in front of a frenzied Finneran Pavilion.