Men’s Basketball: No. 3 Villanova makes first Pete appearance since last year’s Elite Eight

Panther fans will see an unfortunately familiar face this Sunday when the Pitt men’s… Panther fans will see an unfortunately familiar face this Sunday when the Pitt men’s basketball team hosts No. 3 Villanova.

The matchup is the first meeting of the teams since they faced off in last year’s Elite Eight when Villanova beat Pitt 78-76. Both teams, however, will look fairly different this weekend.

Villanova (22-3, 11-2 Big East) returns just two starters ­— Scottie Reynolds and Reggie Redding. The Panthers return just one starter from that game, Jermaine Dixon.

The Wildcats won the game thanks to a Reynolds driving lay-in with less than a second remaining. While the image of Reynolds racing downcourt and ending Pitt’s season might still sting the eyes of Panther fans, they’ll surely see a lot of him on Sunday. Reynolds leads Villanova in minutes per game (29.6). The senior is also fifth in the Big East in points per game, averaging a career-best 18.9 points per contest.

This time around, though, the Panthers won’t have to worry about frontcourt players like Dante Cunningham and Dwayne Anderson, who put up a combined 31 points and 11 rebounds in last year’s Elite Eight game, as both players were seniors last year.

This year, Villanova’s leading big man is 6-foot-8 Antonio Pena, who averages 11 points and 7.5 rebounds a game.

Villanova plays a small lineup, with Pena its tallest starter. The Wildcats play an extremely up-tempo style of play and lead the conference in points per game (85) and free throw percentage (75.8 percent). They’re fourth in field goal percentage (46.7 percent) and fifth in 3-point percentage (37.5).

While Villanova isn’t the tallest team, it is also third in the Big East in rebounding margin, averaging 6.5 more rebounds than its opponents. It is, however, also 14th in the 16-team conference in scoring defense, giving up 73 points per game. The Panthers average 69 points per game.

The Panthers will mostly likely look to slow down the Wildcats and force them to play a more controlled half-court style. But if Pitt plans to try running with Villanova, it could be a big afternoon for Dixon and Brad Wanamaker, both who are quite good at cutting and driving to the hoop. If those two drive to the hoop enough, they might force Villanova defenders to help in the paint, potentially opening up the perimeter for Ashton Gibbs.

It could also be a big game for the very quick and agile point guard Travon Woodall, who had arguably his best game as a Panther in Pitt’s come-from-behind triple-overtime win against West Virginia. In the victory, the redshirt freshman scored 12 points, pulled down seven rebounds and dished out six assists.

Since Villanova is coming off a 84-75 loss to Connecticut on Monday, the Wildcats will surely drop in next week’s rankings. Still, they will be ranked third when they come to the Petersen Events Center on Sunday. Since the Panthers started playing there in 2002, Pitt is 5-0 all-time against top-five ranked teams.

And at noon on Sunday, the Panthers will look to keep that record unblemished.