VILLANOVA, Pa. – The Villanova Wildcats were set on Monday to embark upon a rare BIG EAST two-city road trip, with stops for games at DePaul on Tuesday evening and another Friday at Butler. The Wildcats are 2-3 in BIG EAST play thus far, with all three losses coming to teams in this week's Associated Press Top 25 (No. 6 Connecticut, No. 12 Xavier, and No. 23 Marquette).
 
First up for Villanova (8-8 overall) is a visit to Chicago's Wintrust Arena to meet host DePaul (7-9 overall, 1-4 BIG EAST). The Wildcats and Blue Demons will tip off at 9 p.m. eastern time Tuesday night with a game that will air on CBS Sports Network (John Sadak, Steve Lappas, and Jon Rothstein) and the Villanova Sports Network (Ryan Fannon and Whitey Rigsby). In addition to the IHeart radio app, the Nova Nation can listen to the radio broadcast on Sirius XM channel 390 and 980 on the SXM app.
 
On Monday, Villanova's Cam Whitmore was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Week for the second time this season (the first came on Dec. 26). The native of Odenton, Md. notched season highs in minutes (35), field goals (11), field goal attempts (18) and points (26) I the 'Cats 88-80 loss to Xavier at Finneran Pavilion.
 
In addition, graduate student Caleb Daniels, who averaged 21.5 points per game last week, was named to the Honor Rolls of the BIG EAST Conference and the Philadelphia Big Five.
 
For Villanova, Job One is striving to enhance its work on the late-game details that have had an impact in some of those losses to high-octane outfits like the Musketeers.
 
"I would say," stated Daniels after the game Saturday, "it's just a matter of doing what we do. Every possession matters. Every detail matters. As you could see (against Xavier) it added up through the course of the game. We just have to be better at what we do and take pride in the details."
 
The Wildcats have been within striking distance in the final minutes in each of their conference losses. Villanova trailed UConn 60-56 with 3:36 to go on Dec. 28 in Hartford. It had a chance to tie Marquette on its final offensive possession three days later before its bid rolled off the rim. When Whitmore dropped in a layup Saturday afternoon, the deficit to the Musketeers was at 69-65.
 
"We just have to continue to improve," noted Neptune.
 
Both Whitmore and classmate Mark Armstrong have seen their minutes grow recently. The two newcomers both recorded season highs in minutes in the last week and have each been up to the challenge. Armstrong averaged 9.0 points per game last week.
 
Villanova played Saturday without sophomore Jordan Longino, who suffered a left leg injury in last week's 73-57 win at Georgetown. That void meant more time for freshman Brendan Hausen (15 minutes) and sophomore Trey Patterson (11 minutes).
 
"We're a young team," said Neptune. "The Big East is an unforgiving league, but these experiences will benefit all of our younger guys moving forward.
 
"For us, it's just about trying to better every day so that we're playing our best basketball at the end of the season. We've got another big challenge on the road at DePaul. That's all we're thinking about right now."