Villanova-UCLA: 2009 Men's NCAA Tournament Second Round Picks ATS, March 21

Villanova gave everyone a scare yesterday when they were down by 10 at the half to American University.

With 9.5 minutes left in the first half, the squads were tied at 24. Nova finished out the half by scoring seven to the Eagles' 17—very impressive for the winners of the Patriot League.

But Big East Coach of the Year Jay Wright got his players fired up, especially seniors Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham. They each scored 25 and grabbed eight and seven rebounds respectively as the Wildcats rolled, outscoring the Eagles 49-26 in the second half.

UCLA defeated VCU in the closest possible manner—by one point. VCU had a chance for the game winner—Eric Maynor took a shot that had a perfect line, but went off the front of the rim as time expired. The Bruins were up by 10 at the half, but a series of missed shots (including layups) allowed the Rams to get back into the game.

This will be the first time this season that these two teams play each other, although the Bruins had a chance to play two other Big East teams earlier this season—they defeated DePaul 72-54 in December and added to Notre Dame's miseries in February with a 26-point victory.

The Wildcats are currently ranked 11th in the AP Poll and 12th in the Coaches. They have been ranked as high as No. 10 in the AP this season. The Bruins are currently No. 18 in the AP and No. 17 in the Coaches. They were ranked fourth in both polls early this season, and were in the top 10 in the Feb. 9 Coaches Poll.

This will be a great NCAA Tournament game; two top 20 teams face off in the second round. Will home court advantage actually help the Wildcats this time around, or will the Bruins be able to continue their quest to make the Final Four for the fourth season in a row?

By The Numbers

	Record	Conf	ATS	RPI	SOS	PF	PA
No. 6 UCLA	26-8	13-5	17-14	33	61	76.0	63.3
No. 3 Villanova	27-7	13-5	15-14	13	31	76.5	67.0

	FG%	D. FG%	3P%	D. 3P%	FT%	RPG	SPG	APG	TPG	BPG
No. 6 UCLA	49.4	44.5	39.8	36.2	72.1	36.0	8.4	15.7	12.4	3.2
No. 3 Villanova	45.7	40.4	36.8	33.9	74.2	41.1	8.0	14.8	13.4	3.2

Stats Leaders

	No. 6 UCLA	No. 3 Villanova
PPG	D. Collison - 14.5	D. Cunningham - 16.0
	J. Shipp - 14.4	S. Reynolds - 15.5
	A. Aboya - 9.8	C. Fisher - 10.8
RPG	A. Aboya - 6.2	D. Cunningham - 7.2
APG	D. Collison - 4.9	S. Reynolds - 3.6
SPG	J. Holiday - 1.6	S. Reynolds - 1.6
BPG	J. Holiday - 0.5	D. Cunningham - 1.2

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