Villanova Basketball preview: 3 things to watch vs. NJIT

The Villanova Wildcats wrap up their busy three-game opening week of college basketball with the final contest of this stretch, a Friday night home game against NJIT.

Villanova is coming off a disappointing 90-80 loss to Columbia on Wednesday night. Before that, it won its season opener against Lafayette.

NJIT will also be eager to return to the court. The Highlanders squandered a 17-point second-half lead against Penn in its season opener Monday night. The Quakers went on a 17-0 run that turned into a 23-5 run to seal the 58-57 comeback victory for Penn.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM ET from Finneran Pavilion. The game will also be available on Fox Sports 2.

Here are three things to watch Friday night:

NJIT’s guard tandem

Last season, Tariq Francis led the Highlanders with 14.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

After Francis, NJIT said goodbye to its next four highest-producing players, but he’s back to lead this newly rebuilt roster.

The Highlanders don’t have many returning from last season’s 7-21 team, but Francis and teammate Sebastian Robinson are two holdovers who have gotten off to a good start.

Both players scored 20 points apiece and accounted for 40 of NJIT’s 57 points from Monday night. They also shot 62.9% of the team’s shot attempts, so it’s safe to say they’ll have a sustained green light and should dictate most of Villanova’s attention.

Highlanders’ small-ball roster

Friday could be a big night for Villanova’s frontcourt.

Maybe head coach Grant Billmeier can tinker with his starting five or his rotation after Monday’s season-opening loss, but assuming that stays the same, the Highlanders’ starting five doesn’t have a single player taller than 6-foot-7.

Francis is listed at 6 feet tall, with Robinson at 6-1. The rest of the starting five features Jake Goldberg (6-4), Jordan Rogers (6-6) and Levi Lawal (6-7).

Freshman Malachi Arrington came off the bench and he appears to be the only player in the rotation who provided true size up front at 6-foot-11, but he was in foul trouble. Arrington played just 10 minutes and fouled out.

Villanova’s answer Wednesday night

When asked what two-game concerns Kyle Neptune believes could be addressed after the Columbia loss, Neptune didn’t give much of a clear answer.

“Yeah, if we won that game, we’d still be a lot better,” Neptune said. “We’re just not where we need to be right now. We’ve got to go back, watch this film, learn from it, move on and get better. We’ve got a lot of things to get better at.”

The offense looked quiet at times, but the defense was in poorer form. The Wildcats gave up 90 points against a team that hadn’t reached that mark in five years. They allowed Columbia to outscore them in the paint, 36-24, and the Lions got to the line a bunch in the second half, drilling 21 of 22 free throw attempts in the second half.

Eric Dixon dropped 33 points in his season debut, which sounds like a winning recipe in itself, but the ‘Cats couldn’t contain the Lions.

Will there be any improvement Friday night? Sure, it’s a new-look roster and there will be some bumps, but that can’t excuse a loss to Columbia.