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Villanova's frontcourt trio delivers in win against Providence

01/23/2018, 11:15pm EST
By Austin Petolillo

Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree scored a career-high 11 points against Providence on Wenesday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/ CoBL)

Austin Petolillo (@AustinPSports)
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Ever since Jay Wright arrived at Villanova as the head coach back in 2001, the Wildcats have been known as a guard-heavy team.

Wight’s list of great guards includes players like Randy Foye, Kyle Lowry and Allen Ray on the 2004-05 and 2005-06 squads and Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher on Wright’s first Final Four team. More recently, Ryan Arcidiacono and current junior Jalen Brunson have highlighted Wright’s rosters and several more can be added to the list.

But when you talk about Wright’s great forwards, only a few Wildcats come to mind: Curtis Sumpter, Dante Cunningham, Mouphtaou Yarou and Daniel Ochefu.

This Villanova team could potentially have three great forwards on its roster.

Led by former five-star recruit and redshirt freshman Omari Spellman, redshirt junior Eric Paschall and freshman Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, the Wildcats boast some problems for opposing teams in the front court.

“You have to have guys who can score, who can make free throws and make the right decisions,” Wright said. "That’s a lot for a big guy and we have three guys who can do it.”

With Brunson and Mikal Bridges having off nights for Villanova against Providence on Tuesday night, Wright’s young big men stepped up in a huge way.

The forwards were three of the six Villanova players to score in double figures as the Wildcats beat Providence 89-69 at the Wells Fargo Center for their third straight win of at least 20 points.

Paschall finished with 17 points, Spellman ended with 16 points and Cosby-Roundtree finished with 11 points, which was a career-high for the 6-foot-8 forward out of Neumann-Goretti.

“Other guys stepped up and that’s what we need,” Wright said. “We need the young guys to keep getting better -- and Dhamir is, and Omari is as well.”

The Wildcats brought in two other freshmen with Cosby-Roundtree this season in Archbishop Wood alum Collin Gillespie and Massachusetts wing Jermaine Samuels.

By default, Cosby-Roundtree has made the biggest impact out of the trio as Gillespie was held out for nine games due to a fractured bone in his left hand and Samuels is currently nursing a broken left hand and has missed the last six games.

Averaging 3.9 ppg and 2.5 rpg on 12.8 mpg, Cosby-Roundtree has given the Wildcats valuable minutes off the bench as the third “big” in the rotation.

“He’s really valuable to our team because it’s having a third big but he can also guard on the perimeter,” Wright said. “He really plays [the] pick-and-roll well and then offensively, he’s really efficient.”

While he only averages 2.2 shots per game, Cosby-Roundtree converts on 79 percent of his shots, all inside the arc.

Cosby-Roundtree, who had surgery on his left tibia in the spring, was forced to miss the team’s summer workouts, which halted his transition from the high school game to the college game.

“It’s been hard, just trying to be able to adjust to the speed of the game and the physicality,” Cosby-Roundtree said. “I’ve just been staying in the gym trying to work on listening to the coaching and trying to get better everyday.”

“His ability to guard on the perimeter is kind of like Daniel Ochefu and he’s really one of the smartest players in the post area that we’ve had in a long time,” Wright said. “So just seeing him translate that into college basketball, it’s important for us that he’s doing a great job.”

While Cosby-Roundtree does his damage inside, Spellman and Paschall, who has recently found his shooting stroke, can both knock down shots from 3-point range.

With two of the three big men capable of shooting the three, Wright’s lineups are even harder to defend.

“They’re not traditional bigs, there’s not a seven footer out there, they’re skilled,” Providence coach Ed Cooley said. “I don’t necessarily think they’re big, I think they’re skilled forwards.”

The win improves Villanova to 19-1 and 6-1 in Big East play.

Up next for the Wildcats is a trip to Milwaukee where they’ll take on Marquette (13-6, 4-3 in Big East) on Sunday. Villanova beat Marquette 100-90 at home on Jan.6.

The last time Villanova traveled up to Milwaukee as the No. 1 team in the nation was just last season when the Golden Eagles pulled off a 74-72 upset.

“The good thing is we went through this last year and you kind of learn from last year,” Wright said. “You watch film and they’ll play different styles against you and they play at a much higher intensity level so the team you get, is not the same team you see on film.”

“But we went through that last year so I think the guys know this now.” 


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