Villanova Preview: Wildcats Host Queens in Home Opener

Villanova Men’s Basketball will play their first home game of the 2025-26 season when they host Queens University (N.C.) at the Finneran Pavilion at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8.

The Wildcats showed plenty of fight in their first game of the Kevin Willard era, losing 71-66 to No. 8 BYU in a de facto road game. Now they’ll try to get in the win column.

ESPN+ holds the telecasting rights to this game, which marks the first in the Villanova Challenge, a Multiple Team Event (MTE) including Queens, Duquesne and Sacred Heart. The Wildcats enter as a heavy favorite, winning 96.1 percent of the time in ESPN Analytics simulations.

ESPN Bet sets the money line at an overwhelming -6000 in Villanova’s favor, with a point spread of -18.5 and an over/under of 151.5. Queens comes to town with a 1-1 record after losing to Winthrop and beating Lynchburg (D-III). As such, the Royals hold the No. 215 spot in the KenPom Ratings. Barring drastic improvement on their part, that means this game will end up as a Quad 4 matchup once the first NET rankings drop in December.

KenPom lists Queens with the 163rd-best offensive rating and the 294th-best defensive rating, so expect the Wildcats’ offense to feast.

Scouting the Wildcats

Redshirt sophomore point guard Bryce Lindsay went off when Villanova played BYU, scoring 22 points (including 5-of-9 from three) in 29 minutes off the bench to lead the team. Senior Duke Brennan helped the small ball centric Wildcats win the rebounding margin, pulling down 15 boards, while true freshman point guard Acaden Lewis’ three assists ranked first in that category. Fellow true freshman Chris Jeffrey was the only other Villanova player to finish in double figures, putting up 11 points in 16 minutes.

Even though the season only just began, the Wildcats are banged up. Junior wing Zion Stanford is expected to miss roughly a month with an ankle injury, while graduate point guard Devin Askew was able to expedite his return from an offseason knee injury. He was visibly rusty against the Cougars, missing all three of the shots he took and racking up three fouls and a turnover in just 12 minutes.

Following the game, Willard chastised himself for rushing Askew back into the lineup: against a less prestigious opponent, the Wildcats could continue to play Askew on a minutes restriction to get him fully healthy, or give him an extended look to shake off that rust.

Scouting the Royals

The Royals took more than half their shots from three in their first two games, but converted a paltry 28.8 percent of the time. Their 36-of-56 (64.2 percent) clip from two-point range helped them average an excellent 80.5 points per game (although that comes with the caveat of beating up on a D-III program) as did a propensity for drawing fouls: the Royals converted on 38 of 58 trips to the charity stripe. 

Four Royals are averaging double digit points across their first two games. 6-foot-6 sophomore guard Yoav Berman leads the way with 17 points per game, while senior Chris Ashby (16.0 points, 2.5 assists) trails right behind him and leads the team in dishes. 6-foot-5 guard Nasir Mann is averaging a double-double with ten points and ten rebounds, and Jordan Watford rounds out the list, coming off the bench with ten points per game.

Guard Maban Jabriel and forward Avantae Parker are the Royals’ other two starters. Both 6-foot-9, they give Queens some size, but neither is particularly bulky.