Fastbreak Friday is a weekly preview of the weekend's local college basketball action. CSN anchor/reporter Amy Fadool and CSN producer Sean Kane provide their analysis on all the games involving city teams and predict the outcomes. Look for this column every Friday during the college basketball season. Season prediction records can be found at the bottom of the column.
No. 6 Villanova (15-2, 5-0 Big East) at Georgetown (11-6, 4-1 Big East), Saturday, 1 p.m.
SK: Villanova returns to the scene of arguably its worst loss in three years — the Wildcats lost to Georgetown by 20 last January at the Verizon Center. Both teams come into this matchup on a roll. Villanova is riding a seven-game winning streak while Georgetown has won five of its last six games. Jay Wright's team is the only Big East team still undefeated in conference play, but the Hoyas are just a half-game behind Villanova in the standings.
The health of senior big man Daniel Ochefu is the biggest question mark entering this game for Villanova. Ochefu was diagnosed with a deep bruise in his buttocks after taking a hard fall during Wednesday's win over Marquette. Ochefu did not practice on Thursday and his status is uncertain for Saturday's game at Georgetown. Ochefu is Villanova's most important player simply because he's the team's only true scoring threat in the post. He's also a terrific shot-blocker who anchors Villanova's defense. If Ochefu can't play, expect junior Darryl Reynolds to get his first career start in what promises to be a raucous environment.
Villanova took Marquette's best shot Wednesday and still walked away with a 15-point win. The Wildcats trailed by one at halftime, but kept their poise and went on to outscore the Golden Eagles by 16 in the final 20 minutes. Junior forward Kris Jenkins led the way with 20 points but senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono was the driving force behind the win with 12 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals. It was a vintage Arcidiacono performance — diving for loose balls and frustrating Marquette's Traci Carter to the point where Carter was ejected from the game for intentionally kicking Arcidiacono in the face after Carter was called for a charge. At one point, the officials stopped the game because they thought Arcidiacono had blood on his jersey, a regular occurrence the past four years.
Freshman guard Jalen Brunson added 14 points in Villanova's win over Marquette. If Brunson can get going on the offensive end on a consistent basis it would give the Wildcats an added dimension on the offensive end. It becomes a case of pick your poison with leading scorer Josh Hart, Ochefu in the post, and Aricidiacono, Jenkins, and Brunson on the perimeter. Now that Brunson has 17 college games under his belt, expect him to become a more consistent performer on the offensive end.
Georgetown will be plenty motivated to knock off the top team in the conference and grab a share of first place. The Hoyas have one of the best players in the Big East in senior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, who matched a career-high with 33 points in Wednesday's 20-point win at St. John's. Smith-Rivera is Georgetown's leading scorer at 16.3 ppg and also leads the team in assists (4.4 apg) and steals (1.6 spg).
The outcome of this game could swing depending on Ochefu's availability. I'm going under the assumption that Ochefu will play and provide some semblance of a scoring threat inside. I'm also anticipating a big game from Hart in his hometown after he shot just 4 of 12 from the field against Marquette and missed all five of his three-point attempts. Villanova will leave the Verizon Center on Saturday in much better spirits than they did a year ago.
Villanova 77, Georgetown 71
Fordham (10-5, 1-3 A-10) at Saint Joseph's (13-3, 3-1 A-10), Saturday, 1 p.m.
AF: The Hawks return home after a getting a nice win on the road at George Mason. In fact, Phil Martelli's team has just one slip-up in their last 10 games, and that was a close three-point loss to VCU.
In the game against the Patriots, it was another standout performance from Isaiah Miles. Zeke, as he is sometimes called, poured in 26 points and added 10 boards. Side note: Is there a rule that if your name is Isaiah and you play basketball, you will be called Zeke because of Isiah Thomas? Kinda feels that way. Maybe the new Zeke rule should be: If you play basketball and only if you spell your name the unusual spelling like Thomas: Isiah. *climbs off unimportant side note soapbox*
But back to Miles. He's the Hawks' leading scorer and a big reason why they have won nine of their last 10 games. DeAndre' Bembry is perhaps the best player on St. Joe's but Miles is certainly proving that he's not the only player. And it's that kind of 1-2 scoring punch that helps teams down the stretch, not only in close games, but in the tail end of the season and dare I say it, tournament time. Miles has been everything and more to the Hawks and I think Bembry is able to play more of his game, knowing he's not the only one carrying the scoring load.
Fordham is coached by Jeff Neubauer, who's in his first year in the Bronx. And if that name sounds familiar, it should. Neubauer played his college ball at La Salle and was a freshman point guard on the Speedy Morris team that went 30-2 in the regular season. And he's got the Rams playing well, picking up nice wins over St. John's and LIU-Brooklyn this season. But Fordham is coming off a tough two-game stretch against teams where Tony Fadool attended college. Wait, who is that, you ask? Yup, it's my dad. Just a shameless shoutout. But we are from the great city of Richmond, Virginia, and Fordham posted back-to-back losses to Richmond and to VCU. Those Rams are still undefeated in A-10 play.
Fordham doesn't have a great track record so far this season away from the Bronx (10-1 at home, 0-3 away), and I think that continues this weekend.
St. Joe's 78, Fordham 70
Cincinnati (13-5, 3-2 AAC) at Temple (8-7, 3-2 AAC) Saturday, Noon
AF: This is a rematch of the Owls' first win over a ranked opponent earlier this year, just over two weeks ago. If you missed the victory over then-No. 22 Cincinnati, I don't blame you. It just so happened to be on Tuesday, Dec. 29. That was the same day the Eagles let Chip Kelly go, around 7:15 p.m. At that very moment, I was actually enjoying a very nice performance of the timeless holiday tradition The Nutcracker performed by the Pennsylvania Ballet with the co-author of this column. However, only one of us enjoyed the second half of the performance. But enough about the 49ers' head coach.
Temple should be riding a three-game win streak because the Owls should have really won their game this week against Memphis, and I don't mean that to sound rude. But when a team doesn't trail in the second half of a game except for the final half-minute, that's an issue. Here's how it went down: under 30 seconds to go, the Tigers took the lead thanks to a free throw. Then the Owls tied the game up with about two seconds to go. And it went downhill from there. On the ensuing inbounds play, Memphis' Ricky Tarrant was fouled with just under two seconds left, as confounding a foul as you'll see to end a game. Of course he hit both free throws to take the lead by two, and that was all she wrote.
Cincinnati, meanwhile, visits Philadelphia coming off a win at home over Houston, a team which dismantled Temple right after the win over the Bearcats earlier this month. In the UC win over Houston, the Bearcats held one of the conference's highest scoring teams to just 59 points, 22 points below its average, while also turning the Cougars over 17 times. Mick Cronin's team is playing very good defense right now. His top player, American leading scorer Rob Gray, was held to just six points.
This all depends on which Temple team show up. The one which beat Cincinnati and UConn on the road, both then-ranked, will win again. But the one that showed up against Houston in between those two Top 25 wins will not. I didn't win the Powerball, so I'm not sure my predictions this week are on point.
Cincinnati 72, Temple 68
La Salle (5-9, 1-3 A-10) at Rhode Island (10-7, 2-2 A-10), Saturday, 2:30 p.m.
SK: After upsetting Dayton last weekend, La Salle came crashing back to reality with a 22-point loss at Richmond on Wednesday. The Explorers have now dropped eight of their last nine and are 5-9 on the season, 1-3 in conference play. Frustrations have been boiling over for La Salle the past few weeks. Head coach Dr. John Giannini took the blame for how he assembled this team, namely the lack of depth on the roster. It's very rare to hear a coach speak that bluntly when assessing his team, particularly in December when Giannini's comments were made.
To make matters worse, our CSN La Salle insider, Andrew Greth, is starting to crack as well. Greth doubles as a La Salle season ticketholder and prides himself on supporting his Explorers through thick and thin. His breaking point came just before Christmas during a 46-point loss to Miami at the Palestra, when he snapped at Miami head coach Jim Larranaga — urging (to put it kindly) Larranaga to remove his starters from the game late in the second half. Greth's outburst captured the attention of the Associated Press reporter covering the game, and the reporter included Greth's tirade in his game story.
Poor Larranaga just wanted his players to experience the rich history and tradition that comes with playing at the Palestra. Instead, he incurred Greth's wrath — a verbal scolding that undoubtedly took a few days to subside. Fortunately, Greth has kept his cool since that incident. And luckily, Saturday's game is in Rhode Island. Rams head coach Dan Hurley has been prone to a few sideline outbursts during his career. A Hurley-Greth showdown would be horrific for everyone involved, particularly any children in attendance.
As for on-court matters, Rhode Island is desperate for a win following back-to-back losses at Saint Joseph's and St. Bonaventure. The Rams need a win to stay within shouting distance of first place in the A-10. Look for Rhode Island to take care of business at home against a struggling La Salle team.
Rhode Island 73, La Salle 57
Drexel (3-13, 1-4 CAA) at Towson (12-6, 3-2 CAA), Saturday, 4 p.m.
AF: Time to pay the bills: You can watch this game on Comcast SportsNet. Shameless plug out of the way.
The Dragons have played much better of late, and I realize I say that about a team which started out with six straight losses. But they picked up a very good win last Saturday over College of Charleston, a win this author did not see coming.
Drexel dropped a conference game on the road to Hofstra Thursday night, 69-61. It was a close game and the Dragons had their chances. What I liked about the game was the effort of Kazembe Abif. Bruiser Flint has long been looking for more scoring from a guy who's last name isn't Allen. Abif recorded a double-double in the loss to the Pride, but it was a good sign nonetheless.
Towson played Hofstra about two weeks ago and got run out of its own gym by 32 points. I'm not a believer in transitive properties of victory. Like, Monmouth beat UCLA. UCLA beat Kentucky. Therefore Monmouth can beat Kentucky? Well, maybe. But not because of that silly equation. But in this case, I think that 30-plus point Towson loss is telling of who they are as a team. And I think they struggle again at home.
Drexel 68, Towson 62
Prediction records
Sean Kane: 11-4
Amy Fadool: 9-4