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Villanova at BUCKNELL, 7 p.m. -- The question to ponder heading into tonight's Villanova - Bucknell game is really pretty simple: How long can Villanova continue to shoot the way it has through its first four games?

If the Wildcats have another game where they shoot the ball the way they did in the first four games, and they will beat almost anybody, almost any place. Just ask Oklahoma, who got run out of the Ski Lodge on national TV Saturday. Anybody who watched that game knows how scary good Villanova is when it is clicking on offense. The 85-74 win was by a narrower margin than Nova's 89-51win over Bucknell last season, but stylistically, there were a lot of similarities.

This is not the same Villanova team. Curtis Sumpter's knee injury has changed the dynamics. Without the 6-7 Sumpter in the lineup, Bucknell grad Jay Wright (take your pick of the obligatory Flannery and Wright have ties stories offered up by the Patriot-News and the Philly Inquirer) has gone a lot with a four-guard lineup featuring Allan Ray, Randy Foy, Mike Nardi and Kyle Lowery. Foye is 6-4, the others under 6-2. Will Sheridan (6-8) is the only starter over 6-5.

The lack of size might hurt the Wildcats down the road in Big East play, or even tonight in Lewisburg. But it didn't seem to last season when that lineup took North Carolina to the wire in the NCAA Tournament and it certainly didn't in wins over Stony Brook, Lehigh and Rider, or Saturday against then No. 5 Oklahoma. Through the first four games, Villanova has outrebounded its opponents by an average of nearly 6 per game. The lack of size doesn't seem to hurt the 'Cats defensively either. Opponents are only scoring 53 ppg against Villanova, despite the Cats generally up and down pace. The opponents are shooting only 38 percent against Nova and are averaging 17 turnovers.

Foye is a dimension that will be new, to some extent, for the Bison. A senior who shared MVP honors at the World University Games with Duke's Sheldon Williams last summer, Foye played only six minutes against Bucknell last season, leaving as a precaution after taking nasty spill en route to the rim. Foye posted 32 against Oklahoma with a remarkable 14-for-21 performance.

Equally comfortable popping the J from the top of the arc or beating people off the dribble, Foye had three treys against the Sooners, giving him 14 on the season. And here is the scary part: Foye, who shoots 46.7 percent from three-point range, is only second on the Wildcats team in both three-pointers made and three-point shooting percentage. Mike Nardi, a 6-2 junior, is shooting 48.1 percent from the arc and Allan Ray, with 15 treys, has hit one more than Foye.

Four Wildcats average in double figures. Predictably its those four guards. Foye is averaging 20.8 points, Ray 21, Nardi 13 ppg and sophomore Kyle Lowery 12.8 ppg. Combined they have scored 81 percent of Villanova's 333 points.

Sounds ominous for the Bison, but that is not necessarily the scenario that will unfold in Sojka tonight. For starters, what are the odds that Villanova is going to continue to hit nearly 12 three-pointers per game, especially on the road in a visiting team's building for the first time this season.

As good as Bucknell's guards are, they are no match, as a group, for Villanova's. At least not in terms of quickness and athleticism. Pat Flannery's likes to use Bucknell's matchup zone against teams with bigger or better athletes. If Villanova shoots well enough from the perimeter to force the Bison to play man to man, it could make for a long night.

Likewise, on offense, Bucknell needs to get open looks outside and it needs to knock those open shots down if it wants to upset the Wildcats. After his quick start in last year's game on the Main Line, Nova is well aware of how tough it is to stop Chris McNaughton if you play him straight up in man. That means Nova's guards are going to have to double down. When they do, Bucknell has to be able to make them pay.

That is easier said than done, especially against a group as quick as Villanova's backcourt quartet. They recover as well as anyone. Still, if some combination of Bettencourt, Lee, Griffin and Badmus can stroke a few long jumpers early, it will go a long way towards allowing Bucknell to stay in the game.

Staying in the game, by the way, should be near the top of the Bison's list of objectives. If they can hang with Villanova, they can beat Villanova. Bucknell has developed an end game savvy that is rare. Bucknell's 5-0 record includes four wins by 5 points or less, all on the road. Given the caliber of opposition they have faced in those games, that is extraordinary.

Simply put, Bucknell knows how to win close games. The Bison have a great deal of confidence in those situations.

Villanova has a knack for coming out and hitting a barrage of threes before the opponents have even taken off their warmups, putting teams all but away from the start. They are very capable of a shock and awe kind of start.

Bucknell will need to avoid that kind of a start, or at least to weather it and not lose composure.

Perhaps the most important part of that for BU will be remembering to play its game. Villanova would like nothing more than to turn it into a track meet. Bucknell would be happy with a halfcourt game filled with long possessions. The more time Bucknell can force Nova's guards to work through screens on defense, the less legs they will have at the other end.

Nova does not get a lot of production from its bench. How deep Wright will go in a tight game is yet to be seen. Strange as it sounds to say this about a Patriot League team facing a team ranked in the top 5 in the country, Bucknell could conceivably wear down the Wildcats if they can make this a tight, walk it up kind of game.

Can Bucknell pull this off? After what this team has done on the road last season and this, it would be foolish to rule anything out, especially on their home floor. Only a fool, though, would try to turn their mortgage payment into a week in the islands by taking the underdogs.

And have no doubt, despite being all the rage in national media circles these days, the Bison, in this one, are decided underdogs.
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St. Francis (N.Y.) at LAFAYETTE 7 p.m.: A pair of undersized teams on two-game losing streaks meet in Easton. Swingman Christian Brown scores 14.4 points per game, thanks to 45.8 percent shooting from three-point land. Three other Terriers are hitting at least 40 percent from the arc.
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