The Texas Longhorns make their annual appearance in the New York metropolitan area with tonight’s showdown against Villanova in the Jimmy V Classic. The Wildcats come in with an unblemished 8-0 mark, but their opponents are a combined 23-40 on the year. This will certainly be Villanova’s biggest test to date, but it’s also another opportunity for Rick Barnes and Texas fans to see exactly what their team’s identity will be.

Villanova’s biggest struggle this year has been keeping a complete bench. Big man Dwayne Anderson is recovering from a stress fracture in his foot, which has limited to him only seven minutes all season. Casiem Drummond, who has battled his own share of injuries, recently announced his intentions to transfer to another program. Guard Corey Stokes will be in the starting lineup tonight, but did suffer a hand injury prior to the Niagara game. Add all of this to the fact that Coach Jay Wright doesn’t want to burn Maurice Sutton‘s redshirt, and you have a Villanova team that really only runs seven deep.

The starting five

Fans of college basketball remember Scottie Reynolds as a former Oklahoma recruit, one who could be playing with Blake Griffin and Damion James right now in Norman if not for the misdeeds of Kelvin Denim Sampson. But instead, Reynolds has flourished in Pennsylvania and has emerged as one of the top point guards in the Big East. He still shoots more than most one guards — his 14 points per game are second on the team — but Reynolds is now much more of a floor general than he was when these teams last met in 2006.

With fans and opponents already well-aware of Reynolds, the surprise this season for Villanova has been the emergence of big man Dante Cunningham. Until this season, he was known only as the YouTube sensation that dunked on Kevin Durant at the Wachovia Center. But just eight games into the 2008-08 campaign, Cunningham is taking Villanova on his back. The senior forward is averaging 17 points and eight rebounds a game this year, including double-doubles against Fordham, Rhode Island, and Penn.

Texas is going to have its hands full with Dante in the paint, but the Longhorns also have the luxury of depth. Like they did with Stanford last season, look for Texas to throw a lot of different bodies at Cunningham to wear him out in a physical contest. Although using Dexter Pittman typically forces the Longhorns out of their man-to-man defense and into a zone, Barnes used the big man in this way against the Lopez twins in that Sweet 16 game.

For Villanova, the X-factor in tonight’s game could be the aforementioned Stokes. Despite his hand injury, the sophomore guard is hitting a ridiculous 51% of his three point attempts so far this year. Texas historically struggles with defending the three-point line, as Notre Dame and UCLA gladly reminded us. If Texas is too busy packing the lane to stop Cunningham, Villanova could still ride to victory on a breakout performance from Stokes on the perimeter.

In Nova’s three-guard look, Corey Fisher fills the last backcourt spot. Like Stokes, Villanova’s other Corey was ranked in the top 30 by Rivals coming out of high school. In only his second season, he’s already averaging double digits in scoring and routinely uses a lightning-quick burst of speed to break out in transition or blow past defenders on the perimeter. Texas has put up excellent defensive numbers against top-flight guards this year, but they cannot afford to overlook this sophomore.

Big man Antonio Pena fills the second forward slot for Coach Jay Wright. Coming out of high school, some ‘Nova fans were hyping Pena up as a future NBA star, but he has yet to truly show it at the college level. This season, Pena’s toughest obstacle has been simply controlling his fouls, as he’s fouled out of three games and picked up four in another contest. If Pena cannot play quality defense against lesser opponents, he is going to have a hell of a time trying to defend in the physical Big East. And in tonight’s contest, a very deep Texas frontcourt could exploit Pena’s mental lapses and keep him on the bench with foul trouble.

Off the bench

If Pena does indeed battle foul trouble, a thin Villanova bench will have to step in. Shane Clark is the only true frontcourt option off the pine, unless Anderson is able to finally make a full return from his stress fracture. Clark is only 6’7″, so if Texas can force Villanova to have to give him significant minutes, they should easily control the game down low.

In the backcourt, Reggie Redding provides a fourth option for the guard-heavy Wildcats. Against Niagara, Redding earned the starting nod in place of the injured Stokes, and finished the night with 14 points from the wing. Like Stokes, Redding checks in at 6’5″ and could create some match-up problems. He can easily shoot over the shorter Texas guards, and he’s quick enough that he can beat Damion James or Gary Johnson off the dribble. He likely won’t be the difference in the contest, but it will be interesting to see how Texas handles both Redding and Stokes.

The only other viable option for Villanova is Frank Tchuisi, a Cameroonian forward. He doesn’t see very many minutes, but could get some extra action in this one after Drummond’s decision to transfer.

Keys to the game

Dominate the glass – Texas has a sizable advantage in this one, and must prevent easy putbacks for Cunningham and Pena. The Longhorns have done an excellent job so far this year, winning the battle on the glass by seven rebounds a game. If they can corral the caroms tonight, it should make things a lot easier.

Balance the scoring – Jay Wright always has good defensive teams, and this year’s squad is no different. You can be sure that the Wildcats will not let A.J. Abrams score 31 as he did on Thursday night. That means that other Longhorns will have to step up and chip in a few extra points.

Disrupt the ‘Cats – Villanova has the third-most efficient offense in the nation, so Texas must disrupt their half-court sets. Judging from the defensive performance that Texas has put forth thus far, the chances are good that the Wildcats won’t enjoy their typical 1.2 points-per-possession tonight.

Rick Barnes has made it a point to schedule top-quality competition every season, and he isn’t afraid to take on these challenges in far flung locales. This bold scheduling is surely a reason that his teams are always well-prepared for the neutral-site showdowns of the NCAA’s postseason. But if you’re a crazy fan who has been traveling to each and every game for nearly three straight years, it can really tack on the miles.

Each year Texas travels to the NYC area for an early-season game or tournament, and this year’s northeastern swing looks to be a good one. Tomorrow night the Longhorns take part in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden as they face the Villanova Wildcats, who are still undefeated heading into this one. Those of us in the Garden on Tuesday night are also being treated to Stephen Curry and Davidson taking on West Virginia in the other half of the doubleheader.

The full Villanova preview will be up on Tuesday morning, and we’re hoping to get back to the whole daily posting routine at that point as well. The old, dead computer has been replaced by a sparkling new machine, and things seem to be running smoothly thus far. (You can knock on wood during this parenthetical break.) In the meantime, you can whet your appetite with Kevin Armstrong’s feature on Villanova’s Coach GQ, Jay Wright.

Luke Winn has more cojones than most, as he already put together a pre-season Top 10 for yesterday morning’s blog entry. He assumes that D.J. Augustin will be going pro, and that stud ’08 recruit Tyreke Evans will be landing with Villanova or Memphis once the late signing period begins next Wednesday.

I’m not even going to attempt to sort through the teams until the insanity of early entries and draft withdrawals end in mid-June. But it’s certainly fun to check out all of these early rankings and start to get jazzed about the next season. Winn slotted the Horns 6th, while Dick Vitale had them 4th — although his rankings are located so far from reality that they don’t deserve a link — so it’s safe to say that the Longhorns will be back. But where exactly they’ll end up depends heavily on the Augustin and Evans decisions this month.

In other early-entry news, sources in L.A. say Kevin Love and Darren Collison are going pro, while Collison himself is telling reporters that he’s yet to make a decision. It seems telling that he did not flatly decline the report, instead just relying on the word yet.

Perhaps most troubling for Bruins fans, though, is the source in that article which claims Russell Westbrook could throw his hat into the ring, too. Freshman combo guard Jrue Holiday will definitely make an immediate impact for UCLA next season, but I wouldn’t expect him to be able to single-handedly carry the backcourt if Coach Howland loses both Collison and Westbrook to the pros.

More early-entry news to come as the MSM reports it.