[Willie Bee]

Villanova in finals of Puerto Rico Tip-Off against Ole Miss

Big East meets SEC on Sunday night when the No. 5 Villanova Wildcats take on the Mississippi Rebels in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Championship on ESPN2.

I'm not sure what Andy Kennedy is feeding his Ole Miss players when the team spends time in Puerto Rico, perhaps some Arroz con Gandules or Mofongo. Whatever it is he might want to grab a larger order to go before his Rebels leave the island and head back home from this weekend's tournament.

For the second time in as many trips to the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, Ole Miss has reached the finals and will face No. 5 Villanova on Sunday night in a matchup of 4-0 squads. The Rebels beat then-No. 15 Clemson in the finals of the 2007 event, 85-82, thanks in large part to their work on the offensive boards.

Mississippi will have their work cut out for them again in Sunday's battle against the Wildcats with oddsmakers pinning 'Nova with the -3 ½-point favorite tag, with some books making the number -4 on the Wildcats. No total was released at press.

The favorite to take the Big East this season, Jay Wright and the Wildcats got to this game by slipping past George Mason on Thursday by a 69-68 count, and then topping No. 18 Dayton Friday, 71-65. Villanova was a 15 ½-point favorite in the win against George Mason, but covered the 5 ½-point line vs. Dayton, giving the Wildcats a 2-1 ATS mark on the young season.

Both games stayed 'under' the closing numbers, 143 ½ and 144 ½.

Isaiah Armwood's 3-pointer with less than 14 ticks on the clock helped Villanova avoid the upset loss to the Patriots in its first game of the tournament on Thursday when George Mason had a nine-point advantage at the half. The Wildcats' edge on the boards – 37-23 overall, 15-5 on the offensive end – proved as big in the end as Armwood's bomb, his first career field goal.

In Friday's victory over Dayton, Villanova once again won the battle on the boards and eventually won the game by scoring an extra 10 points from the foul line going 22 of 29 from the stripe compared to the Flyers' 12 of 19 shooting.

Ole Miss opened the tournament with an 89-71 against an error-prone Indiana, covering the 11-point spread. The Hoosiers had 12 shots blocked and hit just three of their 15 long range shots. Murphy Holloway led the Rebels with 26 points on 12 of 18 shooting from the field.

Mississippi (3-0 ATS) followed that up with an 86-74 win as 1 ½-point chalk over Kansas State in Friday's contest. The Rebels shot 56% from the field, and made 8 of 19 from 3-point land.

Both of Ole Miss' wins cashed 'over' tickets as well, easily passing the 148 total in the match with Indiana and just slipping above the 158 against K-State. The Rebels' 86 points on Friday marked their lowest output of the season.


The one and only time these two schools have met on a basketball court came in the first round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament. Ole Miss, the nine-seed in the Midwest region that year, won the contest, 72-70.

This will be the first regular season game against an SEC foe for Villanova since a 91-80 loss at Georgia in Dec 2000. The Wildcats have faced SEC teams three times since, all in the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky dumped them from the first round of the 2007 dance. The year before, Villanova was a No. 1 seed when they fell to Florida in the Midwest regional finals, 75-62. The Gators would go on and win their first of back-to-back championships.

[iceminers26]

Good read, thanks for posting.

Lean to Ole Miss catching the points in a low scoring game.

[LLXC]

I was hoping for more points for Ole Miss. =|

[iceminers26]

I was hoping for more points for Ole Miss. =|

Nova was only laying 4 to 5 against Dayton, so did not expect much more than 4 or 5 in this one as well.