VILLANOVA, Pa. – The Villanova Wildcats went back to work Monday inside the Davis Center ahead of Wednesday night's clash with Butler (15-13 overall, 6-11 BIG EAST) at 7 p.m. at Finneran Pavilion. The Wildcats hope to rebound from Saturday's 73-63 loss to No. 6 Connecticut at Xfinity Mobile Arena that snapped a six-game winning streak.
 
"Every once in a while," said Villanova head coach Kevin Willard, "you get your (blank) kicked. I think the last one we had was at Michigan. We bounced back really well from that. We've been playing good basketball.
 
"You've just got to bounce back. That's a good basketball team that beat us. They were coming off a tough loss to Creighton. I thought their defensive intensity was so much different than it was against Creighton. Being on the road was probably good for them at this point. Sometimes when you go on the road after a tough loss, you find a way. Danny (Hurley) did a great job with his team."
 
A limited number of tickets for the Butler game are available and can be purchased by clicking the link at the top of this page.
 
Although the Wildcats (21-6 overall, 12-4 BIG EAST) had their offense revving in the first five minutes Saturday in South Philadelphia – Tyler Perkins scored the 'Cats first eight points – the Huskies were able to disrupt Nova with a physical brand of defense. That slowly took a toll and allowed UConn to get control of the game early in the second half.
 
"We were too soft in the second half to start," said redshirt freshman forward Matt Hodge, who finished the day with 13 points. "They came out ready to go. It's been a problem for a couple of games now. We need to take care of that."
 
The Wildcats were limited to 63 points on Saturday. They are 19-2 this season when scoring 70 or more points in a contest.
 
The task before them is dealing with an improved Butler squad that brings a two-game winning streak with it to Villanova. It downed Georgetown last week in Washington, D.C. (93-89) and followed that with a 80-75 win Saturday over Xavier at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
 
Butler averages 76.2 points per game in conference play so defense will be a priority for the Wildcats, who turned a 34-30 halftime deficit last month in Indianapolis into an 85-67 victory in their first outing in 2026.
 
Perkins enters the game with 997 career points in his three seasons of college basketball (including 2023-24 at Penn). Senior Duke Brennan is also within striking distance of the 1,000 career point milestone as he enters the action Wednesday night with 949 points in his time at Arizona State, Grand Canyon and Villanova.

FS1 will have the crew of Alex Faust and Donny Marshall at Finneran Pavilion for the nationally televised clash. Ryan Fannon and Whitey Rigsby will describe the action via the Villanova Sports Radio Network (Fox Sports Radio Philadelphia, IHeart app, Sirius XM channel 384 and the Tunein app).