VILLANOVA, Pa. – Villanova settled into a familiar pattern Tuesday, preparing for another road trip.
 
At the midpoint of a scheduled 31-game regular season, the No. 14/14 Wildcats (11-4 overall, 4-1 BIG EAST) are set to visit No. 17 Xavier (12-2 overall, 2-1 BIG EAST) Wednesday night at Cintas Center. The game will be televised nationally on FS1 (Kevin Kugler and Bill Raftery) with the radio broadcast available on the Villanova IHeart Radio Network (Ryan Fannon and Whitey Rigsby).
 
Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. in Cincinnati.
 
This is the 16^th game of the 2021-22 regular season and the eighth time Villanova has played a true road game (4-3) thus far. It downed DePaul 79-64 in Chicago on Saturday, again using a strong second half to earn the win.
 
Villanova won't play its sixth home game of 2021-22 until Sunday, when it hosts Butler at Wells Fargo Center (noon on FS1 and the Villanova IHeart Radio Network).
 
"I think any time you are on the road it's about playing with confidence and a great mentality," said Villanova head coach Jay Wright. "This is a really difficult environment to play in. They've got a great atmosphere at the Cintas Center and they shoot it really well there. If you look at their 3-point shooting numbers there, it's significantly better.
 
"You have to know you're in for that. It's not going to be easy. You just have to keep a really positive mindset throughout the game whatever happens."
 
This is the second meeting in 22 days between the two teams. Xavier built a 38-30 lead after 20 minutes of the clash at Finneran Pavilion on Dec. 21 before the 'Cats rallied to post a 71-58 victory.
 
"Xavier is coming off a great game at Butler," noted Wright Tuesday in remarks to the media. "Just great balance on this team. They're very difficult to prepare for because any one of their guys can get it going and take over a game. We've got to be prepared for any of these guys getting hot, especially at home."
 
Villanova senior Brandon Slater played through a left ankle injury on Saturday and Wright reports he has practiced and should be ready to go Wednesday night.
 
"Brandon is struggling with an ankle, but he'll be good to go," said Wright.
 
This is Villanova's sixth of 20 scheduled BIG EAST games.
 
"You're starting to get to that point where you're in the throngs of Big East play," stated Wright. "This is a real tough time mentally and physically where you've got to continue to try to stay fresh in practice but still continue to improve. This will be a great test for us.
 
"Xavier played a great first half against us here. We played a great second half in that game. I think both of us are trying to improve to put two good halves together. They just did that against Butler. I thought we played a good second half against DePaul. It will be interesting to see where we both are."