VILLANOVA, Pa. – The Villanova Wildcats returned to campus to practice on Sunday (Christmas) night as they prepared to meet No. 2 Connecticut (13-0 overall, 2-0 BIG EAST) Wednesday night at XL Center in Hartford.
 
The game will be carried live nationally on FS1 with Jason Benetti and Bill Raftery on the call. The radio broadcast will be handled by Ryan Fannon and Whitey Rigsby from courtside on the Villanova Sports Radio Network (Sirius XM channel 381/channel 971 on the SXM app).
 
After a bumpy start marred to the campaign marred by injury, the Wildcats (7-5 overall, 1-0 BIG EAST) carry a five-game winning streak with them to Connecticut. Villanova opened BIG EAST Conference play with an impressive 78-63 victory over St. John's last Wednesday night at Finneran Pavilion. Eric Dixon was one of four double-figure scores for the 'Cats, who also got 16 points from Brandon Slater, and 13 each from Caleb Daniels and Jordan Longino. Freshman Cam Whitmore collected 10 rebounds.
 
"I think our guys did a great job in their first Big East game," stated Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune. "St. John's is not an easy team to play against. They present a lot of challenges. Our young guys have been through a lot in the early season. They're older young guys at this point."
 
In this recent stretch, the Wildcats have made gains at the defensive end of the court, holding all five foes below 70 points. Villanova is 7-1 this season when it holds opponents to fewer than 70 points.
 
"We have a lot of talented guys," stated Neptune. "Any one of them can have a great offensive night at any time. We focus more on being locked in defensively and I thought we did a better job of that against St. John's in the later part of the first half and into the second half."
 
These two teams met three times in 2021-22 and two of those contests were tight affairs. The Huskies rallied in the final minute to claim a 71-69 win in Hartford while Villanova bounced back to edge UConn 63-60 in the BIG EAST Tournament semifinal in March at Madison Square Garden.
 
UConn has taken four of the last five meetings between the programs in Hartford.
 
In the first meeting between the two teams last season – an 85-74 victory for Nova at the Wells Fargo Center in early February – Dixon registered a career-high 24 points and 12 rebounds as Huskies center Adama Sanogo battled foul trouble. Sanogo was a force in the meeting in Hartford, however, scoring 20 points and now is backed by one of the nation's most formidable frontlines.
 
For his part, Dixon's game has evolved too. He leads the Wildcats in scoring at 16.1 points per game, was named to the BIG EAST Honor Roll this week, and is the only Villanova player to have scored in double figures in all 12 games played thus far.
 
"Like Nep said, we've got players that can make plays," stated Dixon, a redshirt junior. "It just so happened that I was the open guy against St. John's."
 
Dixon was asked what's changed over the last five games.
 
"I don't think anything's changed," stated the native of Willow Grove, Pa. "We just come in every single day with a growth mindset. We never give up on each other. We never doubted we could be a good team. We've still got a ways to go."
 
Guard Justin Moore took another step forward in his recovery from last April's surgery to repair the achilles tendon tear he suffered in the NCAA Elite Eight victory over Houston. The senior returned to practice on a limited basis this week for the first time since his injury. There is still no timetable yet for a return to game action.
 
In addition, redshirt freshman guard Angelo Brizzi was back on the court after missing the last two games due to back soreness (Saint Joseph's) and a non-COVID illness (St. John's).
 
The Wildcats are scheduled to return to Philadelphia following the game to begin getting ready to host Marquette on New Year's Eve at 2 p.m. at Finneran Pavilion (FS1 and the Villanova Sports Radio Network).