Butler vs. No. 6/5 Villanova

When: Wednesday, 2:30 p.m.

Where: The Pavilion, Villanova, Pa.

Television: Fox Sports 1 (Tim Brando & Ron Thompson)

Radio: Villanova IMG Network: 610 AM/Sirius 84/villanova.com and TuneIn Radio (Ryan Fannon & Whitey Rigsby)

Series: VU leads 3-0

Game Notes Listen

VILLANOVA, Pa. - With their longest break of the 2014-15 regular season nearly complete, the Villanova Wildcats (12-0 overall) are set to host the Butler Bulldogs on New Year's Eve at 2:30 p.m. in the BIG EAST regular season opener. VU last saw action in a 92-67 victory over NJIT on Tuesday, Dec. 23, at the Pavilion.

On Monday, Villanova moved up one place in the Associated Press poll to No. 6, and two spots, to No. 5 in the USA Today/Coaches poll.

It is expected that senior guard Darrun Hilliard will return to the lineup on Wednesday after a one-game absence. Hilliard, who leads the Wildcats in scoring at 12.6 ppg, suffered a concussion in a Dec. 20 win over Syracuse but was cleared to resume basketball activity on Dec. 26.

"Darrun is fine," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright on Monday.

The break afforded the Wildcats an opportunity to pause for a brief tune-up after an impressive run over the non-conference portion of the slate to open 2014-15 that included victories over VCU, Michigan, Illinois, La Salle, Saint Joseph's, Temple and Syracuse.

"I thought we were sloppy in some of our defensive assignments in the first halves of the last two games," stated Wright of victories over Syracuse and NJIT. "I don't mean sloppy with the ball, but sloppy in our concepts. I thought we were relaxed in our concepts.

"We had a mini-camp and by that I mean we just concentrated on what we do for the last two days. We now have two days to concentrate on Butler. They played last night so it gave us one more look at them before we really put together a game plan."

The Bulldogs were ranked in the Top 25 earlier this season and have welcomed back forward Roosevelt Jones, who missed all of last season with an injury. A year ago, the Wildcats pulled out a 76-73 overtime victory in their first visit to Hinkle Fieldhouse on New Year's Eve to raise the curtain on conference play.

In Wright's mind, one key in this contest will be at the defensive end of the floor.

"We need to be connected defensively," stated Wright. "This is kind of the perfect team to test us at this point in that they run their cuts so well, they read how you defend their cuts so well, they make the extra pass, and they're patient in terms of picking apart your mistakes. I think that's the area where we have maybe been a little weak.

"We've done a good job defending the first cut or the second cut but after that we've kind of broken down a little bit. We have to be more connected to playing off each other defensively, like Butler is. I think they are one of the best teams in the country at being connected defensively."

Villanova needs one more victory to match the best start in program history, which came in 1937-38 when the `Cats won their first 13 contests en route to a 24-4 record.

This contest opens a busy week for the Wildcats who travel to meet Seton Hall at the Prudential Center on Saturday (noon/Fox Sports 1) and No. 15 St. John's next Tuesday night, Jan. 6, at Madison Square Garden (9:00 p.m./Fox Sports 1).

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