City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Daniel Ochefu has rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, thrown out a first pitch at the Phillies’ home opener and has been talked to and talked about by thousands of people. But there’s one thing he has not done since the Wildcats won the National Championship on April 4.

Ochefu and the rest of his Villanova teammates have not been able to have a normal day.

“I have not (had a regular day),” Ochefu said on Wednesday night, prior to the Wildcats’ awards ceremony. “Thank god I have finished all my schoolwork so I don’t have to walk around for class too much. But the times I did walk around campus, it was a zoo.”

But for both players like Ochefu, Ryan Arcidiacono and Josh Hart -- who are preparing to be evaluated by NBA and professional scouts in the next month -- and those who are definitely returning to Villanova have to find the balance between weaning off the high of celebrating with getting back in the gym.

Coach Jay Wright normally has an end-of-the-year meeting with his team to discuss what was accomplished during the past season. Wright has scheduled a bunch of meetings in the past two weeks, but they haven’t been about what the Wildcats did -- they were about what they were about to do.

“What we have done is met a number of times to discuss events – the parade, the banquet, going to the Phillies game -- and how we conduct ourselves,” Wright said. “We also talked (Wednesday) about how everyone else is already on to next season, and we’re still celebrating next season. We got to be able to do both. We’re starting our workouts for next year.”

The coach added: “I can see in them a sense of self-accomplishment and I can see they’re a lot more comfortable with the attention. But for the guys who are coming back, we have to ramp that down, and for the guys who are going on to NBA tryouts and workouts, they have to get focused – which they’re doing, but they’re still dealing with a lot of attention.”

Even with the uncertain Wildcat futures of Hart and Kris Jenkins -- a fellow junior who is testing the NBA waters in the next four weeks -- Villanova is poised to be tabbed as one of the top 5 teams in the country at the beginning of next season. Wright will bring in a strong freshman class, Fordham transfer Eric Paschall and emerging stars in Mikal Bridges and Phil Booth, who both shined at points in the NCAA Tournament.

Hart mentioned on Wednesday that he does not intend to make a decision on his future right up until the May 25 declaration deadline, and it seems Jenkins will also take some time.

Meanwhile, the team’s two scholarship seniors (Arcidiacono and Ochefu) will start their professional careers in the next few months. And even though Arcidiacono says whenever he goes out to eat now, he spends more time taking pictures than eating his food, the hype surrounding the title can be forgotten when he steps back on the court.

“I kind of forgot about it (winning the championship),” he said. “You do have the people when you go out or are out to eat that come up and say congrats and things like that. But once you’re back your room and in the gym, you’re focused on the here and now and trying to get better. Since we’re around each other enough, we don’t really talk about it. The first week, we celebrated it but it’s not going to define us as people.”