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Brunson picks up the slack in 'Nova's win

12/14/2017, 2:30am EST
By Josh Verlin

Jalen Brunson (above) scored a career-high 31 points in Villanova's win over Temple. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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What was most impressive about Jalen Brunson’s performance in Villanova’s latest win, over Big 5 rival Temple, wasn’t the 22 points he scored in the first half Wednesday night on a near-flawless performance from the floor.

It was that he went the following 17 minutes scoreless, while taking just a single shot. On purpose. And Villanova didn’t miss a step.

As soon as the Owls made an adjustment to stop the Wildcats’ junior point guard, Bruson immediately switched gears, becoming the bait to lure in the Owls’ defense before setting up his teammates -- namely redshirt freshman forward Omari Spellman -- to put the ball through the hoop.

“There’s a lot of guys that get it going like that and they say okay, ‘they’re not stopping me,’” Villanova coach Jay Wright said, “but Jalen, as soon as he gets doubled, bang, he hits Omari.

“That’s what’s so unique about him.”

Whether it was Brunson or one of the other Wildcats who was doing the scoring, it didn’t matter. Villanova rolled, just like it has in all but a few of its previous 21 Big 5 contests, to an 87-67 win over Temple on Wednesday night at the Owls’ home office, the Liacouras Center.

That opening 20-minute stretch was one to behold for Brunson. The 6-foot-3 guard from Illinois and former McDonald’s All-American was in complete control, shooting 8-for-10 overall and 5-for-7 from 3-point range, while dishing out four assists without commiting a turnover.

After letting his teammates sustain the lead for the majority of the second half, Brunson added a few more buckets in the final three minutes, capping off a career-best 31-point outing, adding six assists and five rebounds without a turnover.

He was ruthless in the open court, at one point putting a Temple defender on his heels with a quick spin move and left-hand finish; he came up with a few of his triples in the half-court offense, but at least one was a no-thought pull-up in transition as Villanova opened the game on a 25-5 run and only briefly saw its lead slip into single digits.

“I think Jalen’s got the capability of doing this every night, he’s smart enough to know when we need it and when we don’t,” said Wright who’s been around a few good guards in his 16-plus seasons on the Main Line.

“It’s why I think he’d be an amazing NBA point guard, because he’s smart enough and old-school enough to know, on (an NBA team), I’ve got other guys that are making a lot of money, and my job’s to get them the ball. But if you need me to go, I’m all for it, I can do it and I love it.”

Brunson did it all through constant heckling from the crowd.

He admitted to hearing the fans who called him “traitor” all night long, the result of playing for the rival school from the one his father, Rick Brunson, starred at in the mid-1990s before spending a decade in the NBA.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah,” he said. “It is what it is.”

On the outside, Brunson didn’t let it bother him, save for one look over at the fans after hitting one of his numerous first-half triples. He’s never strayed from the Villanova party line -- every game is the biggest game, every possession is important, don’t get too high, don’t get too low.

It’s hard to believe those words from the Temple faithful didn’t light the competitor inside, however. In Brunson’s first game at Liacouras, as a freshman two years ago, he was also terrific, pouring in a then-career high 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-5 from deep, while hearing similar taunts.

“I think he really disciplines himself not to be affected by that,” Wright said. “But I think he’s human.”

On this particular night, the challenge not only came from the crowd, but from Villanova’s roster situation. The Wildcats’ backcourt was already shorthanded, as freshman guard Collin Gillespie is out indefinitely with a left injury suffered in practice last week.

On top of that, junior guard Phil Booth had spent most of the day in bed not feeling well, missing the team’s shootaround. Booth played 25 minutes, but he wasn’t himself, scoring only two points while missing both of his shots.

Brunson didn’t hesitate to pick up the slack.

“I just had a feeling when he saw Booth [wasn’t fully healthy], I was like, ‘this kid’s going to go,’” Wright said. “He’s had games like this, but they were few and far between, they’re just games where we need it. Arch [Ryan Arcidiacono] was the same way, Arch did the same thing.”

This was certainly Brunson’s last appearance in Liacouras, and potentially his last season in college. He’s on track to get his degree in three years, and there isn’t much left he has to prove to professional scouts or accomplish on the collegiate level. If Villanova makes another deep tournament run, it’s hard to see him back next year.

But despite putting together an outstanding resumé thus far -- starter as a freshman on a national championship team, first team all-Big East as a sophomore, All-American candidate as a junior -- Brunson isn’t generally considered a sure thing at the next level.

Neither ESPN’s Jonathan Givony nor NBADraft.net, two of the most well-known draft prognosticators, have Brunson going in a mock 2018 draft, in either the first or the second round.

Wright isn’t surprised by that; he gets that Brunson doesn’t have the prototypical lead guard height, length or athleticism a la Russell Westbrook, John Wall, Kyrie Irving and others.

He just doesn’t think it will matter.

“All he’s done is win, win, win, make plays to win, play with great players and carry great teams,” Wright said. “He’s amazing to me, he really is. I think he’s going to be very, very successful in the NBA, I really do.”


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