ALBANY - UAlbany senior Brian Connelly grew up watching Villanova basketball.

Growing up in southern New Jersey, it only makes sense.

On Friday, Connelly expects 50 or so of his friends and family to trade in their Wildcats white and blue for purple and gold.

“Villanova has always been one of my favorite teams," Connelly said. "I have a lot of friends that go to the school. I’ve visited the school a few times.”

Connelly said he had to get some of his friends tickets and so he's "making" them support UAlbany.

Freshman point guard Anthony Raffa is also a native of the Philadelphia area, coming from Wildwood, N.J., which is about 45 minutes away.

“Hopefully a lot of family will be there,” Raffa said. “I can’t worry about that though. I have to worry about winning the game, our team trying to win the game.”

Raffa is excited for the challenge of going up against a Big East team that is ranked in the Top 25 in his first collegiate game.

"It's great," Raffa said. "It gets us ready for the conference tournament (which is) up here and it's going to be exciting."

Fellow point guard Mike Johnson is also excited for the challenge of going up against Villanova point guard Scottie Reynolds.

“I never thought it would be, but I’m embracing it,” Johnson said. “I’m up for it and I can’t wait. I tell Coach (Brown) that every day that I’m so excited and I just hope he’ll be able to schedule games like this more often.”

Johnson, who transferred in from Blinn College in Texas is listed as one of five starters by Brown for tomorrow's game. The others are Connelly, senior Jimmie Covington, junior Brett Gifford and red-shirt freshman Billy Allen.

Don't be surprised though if Brown changes things routinely Friday night because eight of his players will be putting the UAlbany jersey on for the first time.

“I feel like for one day, my first game, I can feel like I’m a Big East point guard,” Johnson said.

The last time UAlbany played a Big East team, they were defeated by Connecticut 86-55 on Nov. 26, 2006, in what was a rematch of the NCAA Tournament first round game from March '06.

“Villanova, that says it all,” sophomore guard Tim Ambrose said. “It’s the Big East, a Top 20 team, so we just have to prepare ourselves every day in practice until Friday and then go out there, try to execute our defense and our offense and hope we come out on top.”

In fact, the Great Danes first two games are against Big East squads as they will take on DePaul on Monday, Nov. 17.

“We have a lot of talent and we have some skill, but the teams we are going up against our first two games, definitely have that to, so this will show how much heart we have and how much desire we really have to win,” Johnson said.

Connelly says he's seen the team make "incredible" improvement from their first scrimmage against Long Island to their second, which was at Bucknell.

“In my opinion, we’ve made leaps and bounds since the beginning of practice,” Connelly said.

We'll find out how good UAlbany and a little bit more about their makeup on Friday night.

Make sure to check back for my prediction on the game.

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And finally, as UAlbany's resident Philadelphia Phillies fan, Raffa reacted the Phillies winning the World Series.

“They finally did it,” Raffa said. “Now, everyone is trying to hate on the Eagles because they lost to the Giants. I just have to rub it in their faces because everyone (here is) a Mets fan and Yankees fan.”