Adam Zagoria of New York Times Sports and Forbes Spotts has announced the Wildcats’ out-of-conference games.
The announcement reveals two exhibition games and two regular-season games that were unknown prior to this:
Advertisement
-
October 17 vs George Mason (exhibition)
-
October 22 vs Virginia (exhibition)
As speculated, the Wildcats have finished out the schedule with two more “buy games” against Rider and Holy Cross. Some will be disappointed by this, coming on the heels of the Coppin State and Fairleigh Dickinson announcements, but the schedule was already loaded with quality road, home and neutral-site games against power-conference teams. This, combined with the upgraded Big East, should give Villanova plenty of chances to help its NCAA-Tournament metrics.
The exhibition games against George Mason and Virginia will be beneficial for getting the team ready, as Virginia retains a good portion of its ranked team from a year ago and George Mason is a quality program under Tony Skinn. Past the teams being revealed, we now have dates for all of the games. The schedule now goes as follows:
Home Games – Holy Cross, La Salle, Rider, Michigan, Coppin State, Fairleigh Dickinson
Road Games – Pittsburgh, Kansas, Temple
Advertisement
Neutral-Site Games – Notre Dame (Rome, Italy), Big 5 Classic (Xfinity Mobile Arena), Wisconsin (Xfinity Mobile Arena)
Given this schedule, anything less than 10-2 would be a disappointment. I think fans (and likely coach Willard) would be ecstatic with an 11-1 record. Michigan and Kansas project as the two games where Villanova may not be favored.
