Villanova welcomes Penn for Big 5 action!

WHERE: Jake Nevin Field House, Villanova, Pennsylvania

TIME: 7:00 EST

CHANNEL: FS2

ONLINE: Fox Sports Go

SPREAD: (Villanova at -21.5)

O/U: -110

SERIES HISTORY: 64th meeting between two teams (Villanova leads series 47-16)

Everything has been going according to plan for the Villanova Wildcats.

After becoming the first program to win the Battle 4 Atlantis twice, the Wildcats return to the Main Line to play its first game in the "Big 5" games.

While they did not impress in the first half of any game in Atlantis, Villanova is Villanova and manage to win those close, grind-it-out game. With the strong play of Jalen Brunson, arguably the best guard in the country, Mikal Bridges, the Swiss Army knife of college basketball, and strong bench play led by Donte DiVincenzo, Villanova will likely start off their Big 5 play on the right foot.

Similar to Villanova, the Pennsylvania Quakers are off to a strong start of their own.

Following a crazy 101-96 victory which took four overtimes over the Monmouth Hawks Saturday night, the Quakers improved to 5-3 on the season, their best start to a season since the 2006-07 season when they also started the season 5-3.

That season ended with winning 10 of their last 11 games along with an NCAA Tournament bid.

Notes

Nova Domination: Villanova has won the past 14 meetings between these two programs, 18 straight in Big 5 play along with 4 straight Big 5 titles. It doesn't look like that streak will end this year.

The Spellman Effect: Villanova freshman Omari Spellman's best game in his young college career was when he scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds in a win against Lafayette. Since then, he has shot 3-21 (14%) and grabbed only 15 rebounds in three games in the Bahamas (2.3 PPG, 5 RPG). If Villanova wants to compete against the big name teams, he needs to have more of a presence in the paint.

Tired Legs?: Penn played a four overtime game Saturday night against Monmouth. Four players logged over 30 minutes including two Quakers playing 50+ minutes (Ryan Betley: 55 Minutes and Antonio Woods 50 Minutes). Although they have had a couple days off, it'll be interesting to see if there are any signs of fatigue Wednesday.