Huskers Travel to Villanova Tuesday Night

NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS 2015-16 Record: 1-0 Head coach: Tim Miles Record at Nebraska: 48-49 (4th year) Career Record: 331-269 (21st year) NO. 11/9 VILLANOVA WILDCATS 2015-16 Record: 1-0 Head coach: Jay Wright Record at VU: 320-152 (15th year) Career Record: 442-237 (22nd year) BROADCAST INFO Television: FS1 Announcers: Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery Online: Fox Sports Go (foxsports.com/foxsportsgo) Radio: IMG Husker Sports Radio Network, including KLIN (1400 AM) in Lincoln, KXSP (590 AM) in Omaha and KRVN (880 AM) in Lexington. Play-by-play: Kent Pavelka Expert Analysis: Matt Davison Also available online at Huskers.com, on the Huskers App and on TuneIn Radio and the TuneIn Radio App.

The Nebraska basketball team hits the road for the first time this season, traveling to Philadelphia to take on the Villanova Wildcats in the inaugural Gavitt Tipoff Games Tuesday night. Tipoff between the Huskers and No. 11 Wildcats is set for 7:45 p.m. central at The Pavilion and will be televised by FS1 and carried on the Husker Sports Radio Network.

The Gavitt Tipoff Games, named after Big East founder and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Dave Gavitt, is a four-day event pitting Big Ten and Big East teams against each other early in the basketball season. Each Big Ten team will play in the event a minimum of four times during the first eight years, while Big East schools will play a minimum of six times in that span.

The Huskers, who are in the midst of playing seven games in a 15-game stretch, come off a 97-51 win over Mississippi Valley State on Saturday in their season opener. The Huskers shot 54 percent from the field, including 10-of-22 from 3-point range, and placed four players in double figures. Junior transfer Andrew White III led NU with 18 points in his Husker debut, including four 3-pointers, while freshman Jack McVeigh added 16 points, including 4-of-4 from 3-point range, including 10 straight first-half points for the Big Red. Nebraska used first-half runs of 10-0 and 14-0 and led by as many as 26 points in the opening 20 minutes. On a night where all 14 players who dressed played and 12 cracked the scoring column, the Huskers’ newcomers accounted for 68 of 97 points. No Husker starter played more than 20 minutes, as the 97 points scored were the most by the Huskers in nearly a decade.

The Huskers will face a much more difficult challenge Tuesday night, as No. 11/9 (AP/Coaches) Villanova is 1-0 on the season following a 91-54 win over Fairleigh Dickinson. Daniel Ochefu’s 16 points and 10 boards led five Wildcats in double figures.

The Wildcats, who have won the last two Big East Conference titles, have won their last 27 games at the Pavilion, its 6,500-seat on-campus facility.

Following Tuesday’s game, the Huskers begin a three-game homestand by hosting Delaware State Thursday night at 7 p.m.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
1 -Andrew White III is the only active Husker who has faced Villanova previously. As a sophomore at Kansas, he had two rebounds and a pair of steals in a 63-59 Kansas loss to the Wildcats at the 2013 Battle at Atlantis.

3- Points that Shavon Shields needs to move into a tie for 20th on Nebraska’s career scoring list, as he enters Tuesday’s game with 1,140 career points. Shields, who had 13 points in 20 minutes vs. MVSU, his lowest minutes total in 40 games dating back to his sophomore season.

46 -  The 46-point margin of victory over Mississippi Valley State was the 12th-largest in school history and largest by Nebraska since the 2005-06 season.

60 -  Nebraska’s points from its bench in Saturday’s win.

.788 - Nebraska is 26-7 at Pinnacle Bank Arena since the facility opened in the fall of 2013.

PREVIEWING VILLANOVA
Under Jay Wright, Villanova has been one of the most consistent programs in the Big East over the last decade. The Wildcats have reached the NCAA Tournament in nine of the past 10 years and have won the Big East regular season conference title in each of the past two years. The Wildcats went 33-3 last year before getting upset by North Carolina State in the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. This year, Villanova is picked to win the Big East and returns a pair of starters in 2015-16. The returnees are highlighted by Big East Co-Player of the Year Ryan Arcidiacono, who averaged 10.1 points and 3.5 assists per game last year. Senior forward Daniel Ochefu gives Villanova an inside presence, as he averaged 9.2 points and 8.5 rebounds a game last year and had 16 points and 10 rebounds in the Wildcats’ opener. Tuesday’s matchup with the Huskers marks the first time Villanova has hosted a Big Ten team since March of 1989. 

Series history: Villanova leads the all-time series, 2-0, while Tuesday’s meeting is the first between the two teams on the contiguous 48 states. The Wildcats victory in 1987 (70-53) took place at the Maui Classic, while the 1998 win (75-60) took place at the Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, Ala. Nebraska is 32-36 all-time against current Big East members.

LAST TIME OUT
Andrew White III and Jack McVeigh combined for 34 points in their Husker debuts, as Nebraska opened the 2015-16 season with a 97-51 win over Mississippi Valley State on Saturday.

The Huskers shot 54 percent from the field, including 10-of-22 from 3-point range, in putting up their highest total since scoring 107 points against North Carolina A&T on Dec. 19, 2005.
White turned in a strong debut, hitting 7-of-10 shots from the field, including four 3-pointers, while McVeigh added 16 points off the bench, hitting all four of his long-range attempts. Shavon Shields added 13 points, while Nick Fuller rounded out the Huskers’ double-figure efforts with 10 points and a career-high nine rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench.

White and McVeigh paced NU in the early going, as both scored 10 first half points to lead the Huskers to a 43-21 halftime lead. McVeigh delivered the knockout blow, scoring 10 straight Husker points in an 18-2 surge, turning a 21-11 lead into a 39-13 blowout with 4:23 left in the half.

Damian Young led Mississippi Valley State in scoring with 13 points, as the Delta Devils shot just 26 percent and committed 21 turnovers.

UP FOR A CHALLENGE
With Tuesday’s inaugural Gavitt Tipoff Games matchup at Villanova, the Huskers will look to continue its run of success in conference challenge games. The Huskers are 6-2 in its eight conference challenge matchups dating back to its days in the Big 12 Conference.

The Huskers went 3-1 during the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series, equaling the best performance by a Big 12 school in the event during the event’s four-year tenure. Since joining the Big Ten, Nebraska is 3-1 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, including a current three-game winning streak under Tim Miles.

WHITE, MCVEIGH SHOW SCORING PUNCH
With the departure of three starters who are playing professionally, including two in the NBA D-League (Terran Petteway and Walter Pitchford), the biggest question was who could fill the scoring void for the Huskers, especially Petteway’s team-high 18.1 ppg. The Huskers showed balance in the opener, putting four players in double figures, a feat which happened only once in 2014-15.

Junior Andrew White III has shown early that he could be a go-to scorer for the Big Red. The 6-foot-7 wing had 18 points in the Huskers’ exhibition win over Northern State and followed it up with a career-high 18 points in NU’s season opener on Saturday. White was efficient, hitting 7-of-10 shots from the field, including four 3-pointers, in just 16 minutes of action. It was the most points by a Husker making his debut since Andre Almeida had 20 points in his debut at the start of the 2010-11 season.

Another Husker who turned in a strong effort in his college debut was Jack McVeigh. The 6-foot-8 wing came off the bench and totaled 16 points, including 4-of-4 from 3-point range, in just 13 minutes of action. His 16 point effort was the highest total by a true freshman since Joe McCray had 23 points in his collegiate debut in 2004 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.