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Sophomore guard Chris Wright

On paper, Georgetown and Villanova have much in common. Each team boasts a talented backcourt led by a savvy veteran and flanked by highly touted sophomores.

But in reality, the two squads, which have met five times in the past two seasons, have proceeded in considerably different directions.

The Wildcats, picked by Big East coaches to finish fifth, are on pace to do exactly that, and in winning 11 of their 15 league games to date, have boldly met predictions that some thought were unwarranted. With Marquette’s senior guard Dominic James out for the season, Villanova stands a fair chance of earning a top-four seed in the conference tournament and a bye into the quarterfinals.

The Hoyas, meanwhile, have been inexplicably disappointing, jumping out to a 10-1 start to the season and subsequently losing 11 of 15. Barring a near-miraculous turnaround, Georgetown will miss the NCAA tournament.

“Going up to Villanova is a task, is a task just because of how well they play at both ends of the floor, how hard they play,” Head Coach John Thompson III said on yesterday’s Big East coaches’ conference call. “They do a very good job of covering each other’s bases at both ends of the court.”

Thompson and his squad are more than familiar with junior guard Scottie Reynolds, the Wildcats’ most experienced backcourt weapon. Reynolds, a Herndon, Va. native, traveled to Verizon Center in January of his freshman year and came away with a victory in his first contest against Georgetown, knocking down a go-ahead three with 6:20 left and a pull-up jumper to extend the Villanova lead to three with 2:49 remaining.

Since then, however, the Hoyas have gotten the best of Reynolds and the Wildcats, winning each of the last four meetings. Still, each of the past two seasons Georgetown had more talent than Villanova, and save for their meeting in last March’s Big East tournament, the Hoyas had considerable trouble vanquishing the Wildcats.

Last season, Reynolds was joined by two well-regarded freshman guards named Corey. Corey Fisher, a 6-foot-1 combo guard from the Bronx, averaged 9.1 points a year ago and has posted 11.3 per game this season.

Corey Stokes, a 6-foot-5 knock-down shooter from Bayonne, N.J., averages fewer points than Fisher (9.9) but has made 44.1 percent of his 136 three-point attempts this season, compared to Fisher’s 34.9 on 63 tries.

While both Stokes and Fisher have started at various times this season, they both come off the bench these days. Starting in their stead is junior Reggie Redding. Redding’s numbers are modest – he averages seven points, five rebounds and 2.8 assists – but it is his experience that Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright craves.

With so many Big East teams boasting tremendous experience, Wright has elected to start his two most battle-tested guards and bring his two fiery youngsters off the bench.

“Really [the backcourt is] where we are the youngest,” Wright said. “Stokes, Fisher – the Georgetown guards are young and then you’ve got Sapp who is an experienced senior. Scottie is our experienced junior, and Reggie Redding is also our junior. That’s going to be a tough matchup for us. It always is. I think they have great guards. . I think Clark too is really – we recruited him. We didn’t get him, but we recruited him. We recruited Chris Wright, too, didn’t get him. That’s going to be a great challenge.”

How Georgetown matches up with Villanova’s stable of guards is anyone’s guess, but the Hoyas will need to do a better job against the Wildcats than they did against the Big East’s other guard-dominated squad.

arquette, perhaps the only team in the league with a better backcourt than Villanova, received 59 and 51 points from its three starting guards in its two wins over Georgetown. If Reynolds and Stokes get the same outside looks as the Golden Eagles’ Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews, the Hoyas could be in for another long afternoon.

Villanova’s marked improvement from a group that finished 9-9 in the league a year ago to a squad challenging for a top-four seed can of course be attributed to the maturation of its backcourt, but also to the continued development of senior forward Dante Cunningham.

Cunningham was solid for his first three seasons as a Wildcat, though perhaps not quite to the degree that some would expect from a former Washington Post All-Met player of the year. Rudy Gay’s successor and Kevin Durant’s predecessor was not supposed to turn in 2.2 points per game as a freshman and 8.7 as a sophomore.

But after averaging 10 points and 6.4 boards a year ago, Cunningham has made an even greater leap this season. In 31.6 minutes a night, the Silver Spring, Md. native has posted averages of 16.4 points and 7.2 rebounds, both of which lead his team.

“He really has gotten better and better every year,” Wright said. “This year he’s improved in every area but I think he’s just become a much better shooter, and it’s caught everybody’s attention. But this has been a gradual improvement. . It’s not just his work this past summer, it’s been four years. He has been a coach’s dream. I can’t say that enough. Both his parents are military people. He’s a soldier. You just tell him what to do and he does it, on and off the court.”

Cunningham scored 21 against Louisville on Jan. 10, 31 against Syracuse on Feb. 7, and 18 Wednesday night at DePaul. UConn and West Virginia have been the only league teams to hold him to single figures.

Still, despite Cunningham’s emergence, with each team buoyed by a cadre of guards, the outcome of tomorrow’s game may hinge on the ability of Georgetown’s Jessie Sapp, Chris Wright and Austin Freeman to neutralize Villanova’s backcourt.

They have no choice if they harbor any hopes of a long-shot NCAA bid.

“Coming down the stretch here, we’ve got to find a way to get some wins,” Thompson said. “We’ve got to find a way to turn it around.”

Tip-off at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia is set for tomorrow at noon.

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