City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The defending national champions couldn’t be riding any higher.

Villanova’s back on top of the Associated Press poll, thanks to an 8-0 start to the season and a loss by former top dog Kentucky on Saturday, making it two years in a row the Wildcats have had the No. 1 next to their name after having never previously achieved the feat.

In its long history with the sport, Philadelphia has seen some runs of basketball dominance at several levels. Jay Wright’s guiding the Wildcats 105-12 record over the last three-plus seasons is right there in the mix with the best of them, and it’s not clear when the run will end.

Despite losing Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu, two cornerstones of the program’s resurgence, to graduation, Wright’s team is arguably better this time around.

“They’re not only carrying the flag (for Big 5 basketball), but they literally carried it to the top of the mountain over the last few years,” La Salle head coach John Giannini said. “They’ve definitely become their own brand; I mean, they’re still Philadelphia, but they’ve become a national brand and they’ve earned that.”

Giannini’s Explorers are next up to try to slow down Wright’s machine, which is as well-oiled as any in the country.

It wasn’t exactly a matchup that needed extra juice: a Big 5 game at the famed Palestra is always a big deal, especially when one of those teams is the defending national champion. La Salle (4-2, 0-1 Big 5) is no pushover, either, with a roster chock-full of high-major transfers holding a collective chip on their shoulder. Giannini admitted the simple adjustment of ‘Nova’s ranking from No. 2 to No. 1 is meaningful for the fans but “it does nothing for us.”

Instead, he’s hoping his Explorers take a page out of the Wildcats’ recipe for success on Tuesday night at 7:00 PM in the nationally-televised broadcast on ESPN2.

“Their model is whether they play the 300 team in the RPI or the No. 1 team, Villanova plays exactly the same,” Giannini said. “The reason they’re good is because they do all the intangible things right, and that’s a part of the intangibles that we need to follow in this game.

“I think we all try to be that way and we’re going to try to be that way for this game. We’re not going to try to make it too big, because I don’t think that helps either.”

Villanova (8-0, 2-0 Big 5) has been clinical in its approach this season, though that’s nothing new from the previous few years. Statistician Ken Pomeroy has the Wildcats ranked second in the country in offensive efficiency and ninth in defensive efficiency, and everybody in their top eight is a two-way threat.

They’ve been nearly unstoppable in city contests, winning their last 14 Big 5 games by an average of 22.5 ppg. If they beat La Salle and then Temple next Tuesday, they’ll be the first program to win four consecutive Big 5 titles, shared or otherwise, and they’ll have done it without a scratch.

In an 88-57 win over Saint Joseph’s on Saturday, the Wildcats knocked down 16 3-pointers, had 23 assists on 32 baskets, out-rebounded the Hawks 42-34 and had six players in double figures.

Oh, and Josh Hart had the program’s first triple-double (16 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) in 30 years.

“They do the ordinary things better than any team in the country -- they box out every team, they hit the open man every time,” Giannini said, “In terms of effort and fundamentals, you better match them or they’re going to kill you.”

La Salle enters Tuesday night on a three-game win streak, having knocked off Bucknell 83-73 at Tom Gola Arena on Saturday.

What gives Giannini and his squad hope is that they’ve got a group of versatile athletes who can help defend Villanova’s multi-faceted attack. Players like 6-7 wing B.J. Johnson, 6-6 Cleon Roberts and 6-5 Jordan Price are all in their fourth or fifth year of college hoops and can stay in front of Villanova’s guard corps of Hart, Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo, plus versatile wing forward Eric Paschall and national championship hero Kris Jenkins.

Up front, 6-9 Demetrius Henry has to neutralize Villanova senior Darryl Reynolds while also making sure he doesn’t lose a shooter on a defensive switch.

If the Wildcats’ perimeter options get loose, La Salle is in trouble. The Wildcats take nearly 27 3-pointers per game and are 27th nationally in 3-point percentage (40.5 percent). Hart, Brunson, Jenkins and DiVincenzo are all above 40 percent; Bridges is close at 35 percent.

“The toughest thing about Villanova is they’re a great 3-point shooting team,” Giannini said. “And preventing them from shooting 3s sometimes requires changing your own defensive philosophy and what you normally do.

“It’s a little bit of a chess match in terms of trying to defend their shooting and passing abilities and at the same time being able to execute that and make those changes in what you normally do defensively but then also seeing how they respond to it,” he added. “If they make double-digit 3s -- and they do it routinely because they pass the ball so well and shoot it so well -- they’re going to win almost every time.”