NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 Preview: #3 Villanova vs #2 Duke

For Big East conference fans, the East Regional in Boston is the perfect storm. As this conference showed throughout the season it is the best in college basketball. Now, it is two wins away from having an all-Big East regional championship game.

Pittsburgh and Villanova enjoyed great regular seasons and their resolve was shown in the first two rounds. Pittsburgh earned the region’s No. 1 seed. Villanova earned a No. 3. But they are playing against two of the better programs in the country in No. 4 Xavier and No. 2 Duke.

The Musketeers were an Elite 8 team last year. The Blue Devils are actually back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006. But the three-time NCAA champions have a better looking team because they are just a little more balanced.

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No. 2 Duke (30-6) vs. No. 3 Villanova (28-7)

Time/Day/TV: 9:57 EDT/Thursday/CBS

Duke Road to the Final Four: D. No. 15 Binghamton 86-62 D. No. 7 Texas 74-59

Villanova Road to the Final Four: D. No. 14 American 70-57 D. No. 6 UCLA 89-69

Duke Moment of Truth: The Blue Devils blew a 10-point lead in the second half to Texas and were tied twice but survived.

Duke Leading Scorers: Gerald Henderson 16.8, Kyle Singler 16.5, Jon Scheyer 14.9

Villanova Moment of Truth: The Wildcats were down, 41-31, at the end of the first half to American but then prevailed in the second half.

Villanova Leading Scorers: Dante Cunningham 16.3, Scottie Reynolds 15.1, Corey Fisher 10.9

Key Matchup: Duke G-F Gerald Henderson vs. Villanova G-F Dwayne Anderson. Anderson hasn’t gotten hot yet but Henderson has kicked his game up a notch and really been the X-factor to Duke’s return to the Sweet 16. Expect the Wildcats to throw several defenders at him.

Who Wins and Why: Villanova. The Wildcats will contest Duke’s perimeter game and Cunningham is physically stronger against Duke’s Singler. Singler was really exposed against Texas and fouled out.

Kevin Lonnquist
BigEast-fans.com Staff Writer

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