City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Update, 12/23, 7 PM): Jenkins has been ruled day-to-day with a sprained knee after the MRI, so it looks like the worst-case scenario has been avoided.

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The result of Villanova’s game against Delaware on Tuesday night is largely irrelevant.

Sure, the Wildcats did what they were supposed to do against a Blue Hens squad that’s short three members of its rotation, running away to a 78-48 win. That’s to be expected when a power conference program ranked in the top 20 in the country goes up against a team that’s relying on a walk-on to play double digit minutes off the bench because there are no other options.

But afterwards, though Villanova head coach Jay Wright and several of his players were in a good mood about the trouncing they’d just delivered, there was a vein of concern running through the press conference.

That was due to the fact that 10 minutes into the first half, junior forward Kris Jenkins departed with what the team called a “right knee sprain,” and his return was ruled out before halftime even came.

Afterwards, Wright didn’t have a lot of new information about the 6-foot-6 sharpshooter, who was one game removed from a career-best 23 points against Virginia.

“Not definite, but it’s not good,” Wright said. “He’s going to get an MRI, but it wasn’t something where they thought he could go back and try to play. They said it’s serious enough where we need to get an MRI before we can do anything.”

Of course, there’s a chance that it’s all precautionary, that Jenkins will recover quickly and again be a major contributor (118 ppg, 3.3 rpg) to a team that’s No. 17 in the country.

But if Jenkins is out for an extended period of time, Villanova’s going to be in some real trouble.

Wright doesn’t give out the maximum 13 athletic scholarships, and began the season with just 10 recruited bodies along with three walk-ons and one ineligible transfer. A preseason hip injury knocked 6-8 freshman forward Tim Delaney out for the year, and then nine days ago it was revealed that another rookie, 6-4 Donte Divincenzo, had broken a bone in his foot and would miss 4-to-6 weeks.

Aside from another early exit in the NCAA Tournament, this is about worst-case scenario for the Wildcats.

“We’ve got a lot of things up in the air right now,” Wright said.

With those two sidelined, that means Wright has only seven scholarship bodies and only two post players, 6-10 senior Daniel Ochefu and 6-8 redshirt sophomore Darryl Reynolds. And while Ochefu (9.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg) has had his share of big offensive games, Reynolds (1.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg) is in there to defend and hit the glass.

After them, it’s 6-7 wing Mikal Bridges, 6-5 wing Josh Hart and the three point guards: Ryan Arcidiacono, Jalen Brunson and Phil Booth.

It’s a talented group for sure, but one that’s going to have issues with the deeper teams in the Big East. And while Brunson (10.5 ppg, 3.1 apg) is a McDonald’s All-American, Bridges (7.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg) is proving to be a versatile played in his redshirt freshman season and Booth is giving them 7.3 ppg off the bench, all three (as well as Reynolds) are playing major college minutes for the first times in their careers.

If Jenkins is out for an extended stretch, they won’t be able to get Divincenzo back soon enough.

The Salesianum (Del.) product was averaging 1.9 ppg and 2.0 rpg in 9.3 mpg through the team’s first eight games, but he’d shown in his minutes that he was capable of a bigger workload should he be needed. With the depth that had previously been in front of him, those opportunities weren’t there; now, if he gets healthy before Jenkins does, Divincenzo would certainly see more court time.

“We need him, and what he brings is rebounding and defense,” Wright said. “He was an offensive star in high school but what he’s proven here is physically he can defend and rebound from the guard spot, that’s what we loved about him. We’re missing him right now.”

Villanova has six days off until its next opponent, Big 5 rival Penn, visits the Palestra. While the Wildcats might be able to survive the Quakers with just seven players, their odds are certainly not as good against Xavier, the No. 6 team in the country, who visits on Dec. 31.

So is Wright concerned about facing the Big East schedule with rotation that’s teetering on the edge of an injury-induced disaster?

“Yeah,” he said. “Yes. I am.”