VILLANOVA, Pa. – It's March and in the realm of college basketball that means the number of games left on the calendar is dwindling to a precious few.
 
Villanova, fresh from an exciting 67-61 victory over first place Marquette Wednesday night at Finneran Pavilion, jumps back into action Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center when it hosts Butler (15-13 overall, 6-9 BIG EAST). It's the final regular season home date for the 2018-19 Wildcats, who enter this weekend's action with a 21-8 overall mark, 12-4 BIG EAST.
 
The Wildcats will close out the regular season one week from Saturday, at Seton Hall before turning their attention to the 2019 BIG EAST Tournament presented by Jeep. That event gets underway on March 13 and Villanova is assured of being either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the event at New York's Madison Square Garden.
 
This Saturday's clash with Butler gets underway just after 2 p.m. in South Philadelphia. Fox will carry the game nationally (Fox 29 in Philadelphia) with Joe Davis and Donny Marshall courtside. Ryan Fannon and Whitey Rigsby are the announcers for the Villanova radio broadcast, which is heard locally on 610 ESPN Radio and elsewhere via the TuneIn app and on Sirius channel 134/XM channel 202.
 
The Wildcats went through a brisk mid-day practice Friday at the Finneran Pavilion to prepare for Saturday's action. Villanova outlasted the Bulldogs 80-72 when the teams met on Jan. 22 at Hinkle Field House in Indianapolis.
 
Villanova head coach Jay Wright sees parallels between his team and Saturday's opponent.
 
"They're similar to us in some ways," stated Wright. "They're really explosive offensively – they can light it up. And they can be a little inconsistent – similar to us. You fear getting them on a day when they're hot. They can put five shooters out there and there's not a lot you can do."
 
At the same time, as Wright noted, the Wildcats have become accustomed to doing battle with potent offensive units. They were able to limit a high-octane Marquette unit to 61 points Wednesday night with Markus Howard scoring 24 of those.
 
"Our league has been at the top of the offensive efficiency (rankings) the last few years," Wright stated. "The teams are so smart offensively and they've got skilled players. They're not just putting three 6-11 athletes out there. It makes every game such a chess match.
 
"It's just the way it is in our league."
 
As the calendar turns to March, Wright is among those who marvels at how quickly the 2018-19 campaign has unfolded.
 
"What's really hit me is that we've been talking about having a growth mindset as a team," he said. "We're still kind of tinkering and that's on me. I felt like we were getting there and then we went into the three game losing slide. We had to make a decision. It's late, do you just stick with what you're doing or do you tinker a little bit?
 
"When you tinker, it's harder to be consistent."
 
The Wildcats chose to tweak some things ahead of Wednesday night and it resulted in one of the most important wins of the season. That it was keyed by sophomore Jermaine Samuels – who attempted 19 field goals after attempting 20 in the prior 11 games – made sense, as he was involved in one of the adjustments.
 
"That was the main one," Wright stated.
 
It resulted in an explosive 29-point, nine rebound performance by the sophomore from Franklin, Mass.
 
Saturday will be the next chance to see what the 2018-19 season has in store for the Wildcats.