No. 7/7 Villanova at DePaul

When: Saturday, 2 p.m. (EST)

Where: Allstate Arena (Rosemont, Ill.)

Television: Fox Sports 1 (Joe Davis & Tarik Turner)

Radio: Villanova IMG Network: 610 WTEL AM/Sirius 113/XM 201/villanova.com and TuneIn Radio (Ryan Fannon & Whitey Rigsby)

Series: Villanova leads 19-8

Game Notes / Listen

VILLANOVA, Pa. - For the first time in 2014-15, Villanova will face a foe it has already met this season, as it travels to Chicago to meet DePaul in a BIG EAST Saturday matinee.

The Wildcats, ranked No. 7 in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls this week, defeated the Blue Demons 81-64 at the Pavilion on Jan. 10. However, Wildcats' head coach Jay Wright anticipates a much different kind of matchup in this clash on the Blue Demons' home court at Allstate Arena.

"The last time we played them was kind of a strange game," stated Wright. "They were 3-0 and had been really hot coming in. They kind of looked in that game like we did against Georgetown (a 78-58 loss on Jan. 19). They were out of synch and we were hot at home. I don't think it was a typical game.

"We're not really taking much out of that game. I think it's going to be a completely different game. We're approaching this like it's a new matchup."

The Blue Demons have five BIG EAST wins pending the outcome of Thursday's game at Providence, originally scheduled for Tuesday evening. That contest was pushed back to Thursday due to the snowstorm in New England earlier in the week. Villanova jumped out to a 45-24 first half lead in the first meeting but Wright felt a 40-point second half by the Blue Demons is much more indicative of the threat the Blue Demons' pose.

"This is a very dangerous offensive team," noted Wright.

DePaul ranks third in the BIG EAST in scoring offense (72.4 ppg) and sat atop the league in 3-point field goal percentage (.367), percentage points ahead of VU (.365), entering the game against the Friars.

Villanova bounced back from a 78-58 loss to Georgetown on Jan. 19 with a 71-50 triumph over Creighton on Sunday evening. Wright liked the response his team offered after suffering its second loss of 2014-15 (18-2 overall, 5-2 BIG EAST).

"We had a good outing against Creighton," stated Wright. "I think we saw last night that Creighton is a good team, a tough opponent. I thought we played good defense coming off our Georgetown loss. Going into Georgetown I thought we were heading the direction of a poor performance. We ran into a team that played at a very high level and kind of exposed our direction.

"We got a better defensive performance against Creighton and we're going to have to have that against DePaul."

The Wildcats begin a busy month of February next week that features a pair of BIG EAST home games at the Wells Fargo Center next week. Marquette visits on Wednesday night (7 p.m./Fox Sports 1) followed by a rematch with Georgetown on Saturday (2 p.m./Fox).

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