UConn and Villanova are playing live on the NCAA schedule on Saturday night and the east regional game for the Wildcats and Connecticut Huskies starts at 9:40 pm ET and is streaming from TBS on the March Madness website and the college basketball game has a seven seed taking on the number two seed in the third round and this could be one of the best games of the weekend at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo.
The two teams come in after solid wins in the previous round and the Huskies have been playing very well, defeating Saint Joe's in a high scoring game that saw the team drop nearly 90 points and now they face off against one of the best teams in the tournament, as the Wildcats nearly had a number one seed. The team went 16-2 in the Big East and lost early in the conference tournament, while the Huskies went 12-6 in the AAC this season and they were 27-8, while Villanova was 29-4 on the season. The Huskies are averaging over 70 points per game and they are shooting over 44 percent and they have been a very good team from the front line on the floor and that will be an area of concern for both sides
Shabazz Napier has once again been one of the best players in the nation and he comes into the game after leading the team in scoring, rebounding and dishes in the matchup with the Hawks, as he had 24 points in the game along with eight rebounds and six assists and he will be key for the Huskies on Saturday night. The team is coming in after previously losing to Louisville in the AAC tournament and before that they won three games against ranked teams in five matchups, winning over Memphis, Cincinnati and Cincy once again and a couple of those games were in the conference tournament and now these two teams in UConn and Villanova are looking to make some noise in the East region.
Napier led his team during the season with 17 points, six rebounds and five assists and he was one of only a few players to be tops on his team for all those categories and while he shot just over 41 percent, he has been even better in the tournament and now they face off against a Nova team that is coming in after winning over Milwaukee. This matchup is an old Big East conference matchup and UConn knows they can pull off an upset, as teams like Harvard, North Dakota State, Sf Austin and Dayton all broke people's brackets and now UConn can play spoiler for Jay Wright and company and this could be a great game as the backcourts matchup, including with senior James Bell and both sides have solid leadership coming in.
The Huskies have won four of the past five games against Villanova and after this the team will play against the winner of North carolina or Iowa State and that could be a very good game in the east as well. Harvard is playing against Michigan State and the winners of that game will play Virginia or Memphis and those could be great matchups as well.