Rutgers Basketball has announced that it has scheduled an exhibition game against Villanova, slated for Sunday, October 11th at Jersey Mike’s Arena. Tickets for the game will be available for purchase on the program’s website, as fans will have the opportunity to get a first look at the team against a quality opponent before the season officially tips off about a month later.
The Scarlet Knights and the Wildcats have some history together, as both played in the Big East Conference for a time. Villanova currently holds a 10-4 series advantage over Rutgers, with the most recent game being a 71-63 loss for the Knights in the 2012-2013 season. Since this is an exhibition game, it will not count as a win for either side.
Last season, Villanova went 24-9 with a 15-5 record in conference play. They lost in the first round of the Big East tournament to Georgetown and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Utah State.
The Wildcats’ leading scorer from last season, guard Tyler Perkins, is returning for next season. Last season, he averaged 13.4 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game while shooting 44 percent on all field goals. In addition, Villanova is adding two high-major transfers in the portal, Devin Royal from Ohio State and Kwame Evans Jr. from Oregon. Both are rated as four-star transfer portal prospects by On3.
While it will be interesting to see how the projected leaders of the team have developed in the off-season, there is also a good chance that some players further down the depth chart see some decent playing time in this game in order to preserve the top guys for the regular season. This game will also provide good experience playing together for a team that saw a lot of change in the off-season, on top of giving fans a first look at the new players in scarlet. For me personally, I’ll have my eyes on how having a new center with the skills of Christian Gurdak (assuming he is the starter) changes the team offensively.