City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Jay Wright couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Shocked” was the word the 16th-year Villanova coach used to describe his top-ranked Wildcats’ opening stretch of the 2017 NCAA Tournament, which should have been a walk-over against No. 16 seed Mount St. Mary’s but quickly became much different in front of a near-capacity crowd at KeyBank Center on Thursday night.

The Wildcats came out ice cold, missing their first eight shots from the floor and coming up empty on their first 10 possessions overall, and it wasn’t pretty -- even senior wing Josh Hart, the team’s ultra-steady veteran leader and one of the frontrunners for the Naismith Award, air-balled a floater.

“I really am shocked,” Wright said. “I really am. Again, not how well Mount St. Mary's played, just that we didn't start the game with energy.

Not that Wright took much credit away from The Mount, which under the direction of fifth-year head coach Jamion Christian was making its second March Madness appearance in the last four years.

The Mountaineers were scrappy and energetic, buoyed by an arena that wanted nothing more than to witness the first-ever upset of a top seed in the NCAA Tournament's opening round.

“They came in the game with great energy, great confidence,” Wright said. “I think that's a credit to Jamion and his staff, that they were right from the start.

“And we tried to have our guys ready,” he added. “That's on me, too. We didn't.”

Eventually, as all 130 No. 1 seeds have done since the tournament expanded to 64 in 1985, Villanova put Mount St. Mary’s away, running past the Mountaineers in the second half for a 76-56 win.

But there was plenty to nitpick.

Last year’s national championship hero, Kris Jenkins, suffered through one of his worst shooting performances of the season: 2-of-13 overall, 0-for-6 from 3-point range. Starting center Darryl Reynolds was scoreless with six rebounds in only 16 minutes of work.

That Villanova (32-3) was even able to lead by one at halftime seemed like luck, mixed with a little bit of skill and an overwhelming advantage in the athleticism and size departments.

“We were watching them, we knew going into the game that they have the ability to play the way they did,” said sophomore guard Jalen Brunson, who finished with 14 points, including a layup just before the halftime buzzer to send ‘Nova into the locker rooms up 30-29. “I mean, they came out shooting the ball, sharing the ball and just playing with great energy...you’ve got to give them credit. We’ve just got to come out and play harder.”

It was redshirt freshman Donte DiVincenzo, one of two members of the rotation who weren’t part of Villanova’s championship run -- the Salesianum (Del.) native was sidelined with a foot injury -- who led the way in his first taste of March Madness. The 6-foot-4 guard poured in 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting, grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds for his first double-double.

DiVincenzo left his prints all over a 13-0 run that broke open the game early in the second half, knocking down a 3-pointer to put his team up 12, its largest lead to that point. An 11-0 run that featured four more points from DiVincenzo put the game out of reach in its final minutes.

Were it not for a pair of missed dunks in the second half, his night would have been just about perfect.

“It's a big stage, my first time being in an NCAA Tournament,” he said. “But my mindset was just our next game. It was our biggest game because it was our next game.”

For the game, Villanova recovered to shoot 31-of-60 (51.7 percent) overall, including 6-of-17 (35.3 percent) from 3-point range. Take out Jenkins’ numbers and that jumps to 29-of-47 (61.7 percent) overall and 6-of-11 (54.5 percent) from 3.

Northeast Conference champ Mount St. Mary’s (20-16) won the turnover battle, forcing 13 to just nine committed, but Villanova crushed the Mountaineers on the glass, 43-27.

The Mount was led by 22 points from freshman Miles Wilson, who was 7-of-20 from the floor.

To try to make it back to the Sweet 16 or further for the 18th time in school history, Villanova will have to take on either No. 8 Wisconsin or No. 9 Virginia Tech on Saturday, with a tip-off time still TBD.

Wright knows if his Wildcats want to have any hope of defending their 2016 national championship, they certainly can’t duplicate Thursday’s performance.

All season long, the head coach has fielded questions about that title defense, as Villanova tries to become the first program since Florida in 2006-07 to double up.

It wasn’t until Thursday night, however, that he got to see just how his team would handle that pressure of having the ultimate target on its back.

“You guys asked me a number of times, you dealt with all season having to repeat as Big East Champions, and all this, how does that affect you?” Wright said. “How is this going to affect you? I don't know. We'll see. Maybe that was a part of it. It surprises me if it was.”