Hempstead, NY – The Hofstra Men's Basketball team will face the nation's top-ranked team on Friday when the Pride takes on #1 Villanova, coached by former Hofstra Head Coach Jay Wright, from NYCB LIVE, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.

The game will be televised nationally on Fox Sports 1 (FS1). There will also be live video via the Fox Sports Go app, along with Pride Productions live audio via the Hofstra portal. Links to the live video and live audio, along with live statistics, can be found on this page as well as the men's basketball schedule page at GoHofstra.com. The game will also air locally on WRHU (88.7 FM). 

Wright coached Hofstra from 1994-2001, leading Hofstra to 122 victories and NCAA Tournament appearances in 2000 and 2001 and an NIT appearance in 1999. 

Hofstra has won four of its last five games to move to 7-4 this season. The Pride dropped its last contest, 63-61, to Manhattan on Wednesday evening despite a game-high 22 points from junior Justin Wright-Foreman and 10 points and 13 rebounds from senior Rokas Gustys. 

Villanova is 11-0 this season and most recently earned an 87-67 win over Temple on December 13. In addition to Coach Wright there are a pair of other Hofstra/Villanova connections in the game as Villanova assistant coach Kyle Neptune served as an assistant under Hofstra Head Coach Joe Mihalich from 2010-13 at Niagara and for a short four-month stint at Hofstra after Mihalich was hired. In addition, Coach Mihalich's son, Joe Jr., was a graduate assistant coach for Villanova before becoming an assistant coach at Penn in 2015. 

Wright-Foreman is averaging 23.0 points per game to rank among the nation's top 10 scorers this season. Gustys, who picked up career double-double No. 39 against the Jaspers on Wednesday, is averaging 10.7 rebounds per outing. Wright-Foreman and junior Desure Buie lead the Pride with 28 assists this season. 

Jalen Brunson is averaging 18.5 points per game to lead Villanova. Omari Spellman is tops on the Wildcats with 7.5 rebounds per game, while Brunson has dished out a team-best 53 assists this season. 

This will be the fifth-ever meeting between Hofstra and Villanova. The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 4-0. The last meeting between the teams occurred during the 1997-98 season with Villanova winning 86-74. Hofstra's head coach in that game – Jay Wright. The first meeting between the schools was during the 1976-77 season with the Wildcats winning a narrow 64-62 contest in a game played at the LSU Tournament. 

The game against Villanova will be Hofstra's first at the newly-renovated NYCB Live and the first at the Coliseum since December 16, 2000 when Hofstra defeated St. John's, 86-80, behind 22 points from Norman Richardson. The win was the first-ever for the Pride against the Red Storm. The head coach of Hofstra in that game – Jay Wright.

This will be the program's second-ever game against the nation's top ranked team as Hofstra faced #1 Kansas on November 13, 2009. Hofstra's last game against a ranked opponent occurred on December 6, 2016, when the Pride faced #6 Kentucky at the Barclays Center.