Villanova's women open the 2026-27 season Sunday against Notre Dame in Rome, picked second in the Big East. Last season's three games with UConn show how big the gap to first place was, and how it moved from one game to the next.
Records, schedules, rosters, stats and game recaps are from Villanova's athletics site. The preseason poll and the season summary are from the Big East. Scores, standings, league schedules and announced attendance are from ESPN's data feeds. Figures marked as ours are Negadelphia arithmetic. The roster pages do not say why players left, and we do not say.*
Villanova opens 2026-27 on Sunday, Nov. 1, at noon ET against Notre Dame at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome, part of the Eternal City Tip-Off. Yes, Rome. Villanova's schedule page lists the game on FS1 and lists Notre Dame as No. 13. The Wildcats beat FDU 68-45 in an exhibition on Oct. 18, which does not count in the record.
The Big East's coaches picked Villanova second in the preseason poll, with 90 points and one first-place vote. UConn had 100 points and 10 first-place votes. So it's second place again, behind the same team. Jasmine Bascoe and Kennedy Henry made the preseason All-Big East team, according to Villanova.
Credit the season first. Villanova went 25-8 overall and 16-4 in the Big East, second in the final standings, and reached the league tournament final for the third time under coach Denise Dillon, the Big East says. The league also calls it the program's fifth straight 20-win season. An at-large NCAA bid followed.
The Wildcats outscored opponents 71.2 to 61.2 a game, per Villanova's stats page. Bascoe averaged 18.9 points, and Villanova says she led the Big East in both scoring and assists.
The first was Jan. 15 in Storrs, and it was ugly. UConn won 99-50 and led 26-8 after one quarter and 45-27 at the half. Villanova shot 18 of 65 from the field, and UConn forced 26 turnovers, Villanova's recap says.
The second was Feb. 18 at Finneran Pavilion, and it was different. Villanova led 22-19 after one quarter and 40-37 at the half, and says it was the first team that season to hold a halftime lead over UConn. Bascoe scored 26 and Denae Carter had a career-high 21. Then came the third quarter. UConn outscored Villanova 26-12 in it and won 83-69. By our reading of ESPN's results, 14 points was the smallest margin in any of UConn's 20 regular-season Big East games.
The third was the Big East final on Mar. 9 at Mohegan Sun Arena, with the title on the line. UConn won 90-51 and led 23-11 after one quarter and 49-23 at the half. Villanova's recap says it never got within 27 in the second half. Villanova shot 18 of 66, and Bascoe and Henry were named to the all-tournament team.
Add it up and UConn's three wins came by 102 points, 34.0 a game. In Villanova's other 30 games the Wildcats averaged a margin of plus 14.4 (ours), scoring 2,181 points and allowing 1,749.
Some context cuts the other way. UConn won its 20 regular-season Big East games by 41.5 points on average (ours), so Villanova lost to UConn by less than the league usually did. Nobody in the league beat UConn, which went 20-0.
Now the negative. The best of the three games was still a 14-point loss, and two of the three were never close. Its four regular-season league losses were to UConn twice, Marquette (85-69 on Jan. 4) and St. John's (71-58 on Jan. 24). It also lost at home in November to Fairfield, 75-63, and Princeton, 73-68. In the NCAA tournament it lost 57-52 to No. 7 Texas Tech on Mar. 20 in Baton Rouge after leading 41-40 going into the fourth quarter, according to its recap.
The UConn game at Finneran drew the largest home crowd of the season, 3,719. The 15 home games with a posted figure drew 23,022 in all, an average of 1,535, which ranks fifth among the 11 Big East teams by our math from ESPN's announced figures. UConn averaged 12,036. Schools count crowds in different ways, so treat the ranking as rough.
Opinion: One close half isn't a trend. Neither is one 39-point loss in March. Villanova lost to UConn by less, on average, than UConn's league opponents typically lost to it, but that's not the same as being close. So which one is the real gap, the 14-point game or the 49-point game? December and February will show us.
Six players on last year's roster page are not on the 2026-27 page: Carter, Ryanne Allen, Kylee Watson, MD Ntambue, Annie Welde and Maggie Grant, who has no 2025-26 stats. The five who played scored 622 of Villanova's 2,351 points, 26.5 percent by our math. Carter scored 276, or 8.6 a game, and Allen 245, or 7.7. Returning players account for 73.5 percent of the points, so most of the offense is back. Simone Pelish, Janet Oriakhi, Anna Foley and Alexis Eberz are new to the roster page.
Bascoe, who scored 624 points last year, is back as a junior, along with senior Brynn McCurry (354), senior Kelsey Joens (177) and Henry (279), who is now a sophomore.
Villanova gets two more scheduled tries. UConn visits Finneran Pavilion on Wednesday, Dec. 23, at 1 p.m. ET, and Villanova plays at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 6 p.m. ET.
The benchmarks are ours. A loss by fewer than 14, a win, or a halftime lead that holds would each be a better result than anything last season produced against UConn. A regular-season league record better than 16-4 would show a smaller gap to the field. A win in the NCAA tournament would answer the March question.
Richmond 79, Temple 53. The Spiders scored the first 14 points in a building Temple hadn't played in for four years, on the night it turned 100. One week after a 17-0 start, the Owls had as many turnovers as made field goals.
Halftime was 54-31. Final was 97-93. Penn State set a program free-throw record at 43 of 49 and still watched Anigbata's three cut it to one possession with under a second left. Credit the free throws. Do not hide the second half. Pitt is next.
Burton was the purchase: 42.5 percent on 76 threes at Stephen F. Austin. He led La Salle with 15 points and four threes in the Houston opener. Volume is not a clinic. Homecoming against LIU is where the bet has to look real at home.
Last year Temple beat George Mason in overtime. This year Turner goes for 21 with five threes on the road and the Owls lose by 20. Credit her night. Do not hide the boards or the score. Navy at home is the next read.
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