City of Basketball Love

Jerome Taylor (@ThatGuy_Rome)
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Heading into Tuesday’s contest against Xavier, the Villanova men’s basketball program was in an unfamiliar situation. One the program hadn’t been in more than two decades. 

The Wildcats were coming off of back-to-back twenty-point losses for the first time since the 1998-99 season. After their most recent loss to Creighton, the Wildcats tumbled 14 spots in the AP poll from No. 9 to No. 23. 

For head coach Jay Wright, the rankings are only meaningful at the end of the season. And with the Wildcats more focused on their next opponent than their AP ranking, they were able to bounce back with a 71-58 win over No. 18 Xavier for their first Big East win of the season.  

“When we are ranked high, we really don’t talk about it because it doesn’t matter until the last game of the year,” Wright said. “So we shouldn’t pay attention to it when we’re ranked low either. What matters to us is where we are at the end of the year.

“I think the rankings early in the year, you don’t have any criteria to use, so you have to go off last year. But we were not that good of a team where we were ranked, and we proved it, but we can get there.”

In their two 20-point losses, the Wildcats (8-4, 1-1 Big East) struggled severely on one end of the court in each game. It was their offense against Baylor (36-57), but against Creighton (59-79), their defense was the problem. 

On offense, even though the team struggled against Baylor and the Wildcats were only shooting 42% from the field on the year (30% in the three games before Tuesday), they were still ranked eighth in the nation in offensive efficiency according to KenPom heading into the matchup with Musketeers (11-2, 1-1 Big East) . 

That discrepancy in large part came from Nova’s ability to score from deep, with 44% of their scoring coming from behind the arc (10th in the nation) coming into Tuesday’s matchup, according to KenPom.

But in Tuesday’s matchup, the Wildcats pivoted their focus to interior scoring resulting in 40 points in the paint, which in large part came from redshirt sophomore Eric Dixon. 

“I didn’t think we would be that effective, but it was a point of emphasis for us. I felt we missed a lot of opportunities [on the inside] against Creighton,” Wright said. 

Some of those missed opportunities against Creighton came from missing Dixon as a roller or as an interior option.

“It’s not his fault. It’s kind of our fault,” Wright said.  “We didn’t see him, and sometimes when you’re a young guy and you don’t get [the ball]… you stop rolling hard, stop posting up hard but experienced players know you’ve got to keep working and he really did that tonight.”

As the de-facto big man for a team whose three 6-9 players have played a combined 100 minutes over the last two seasons, Dixon was efficient with the opportunities he did get in Tuesday’s matchup finishing with 15 points (6-8 fg, 3-4 ft) and eight boards.

“He’s a young guy. He’s going to be a little inconsistent, and he’s a first-time starter… he’s not going to be great every game this year, but he’s going to keep getting better,” Wright said of the Abington alumnus. “And if we want to be the best we can be at the end of the year, he’s a big part of it.” 

Dixon led the Wildcats early on, Scoring with a plethora of post moves, including spins and step-through. But the Abington product’s effort wasn’t enough to counter the Musketeer’s hot shooting start. 

Led by senior Nate Johnson (12 pts), Xavier went 6-9 from deep in the first half, including a Dwon Odom entry pass that accidentally found its way through the hoop for three points. The Musketeers didn’t miss their first three until five minutes remained in the first half. And on the offensive end for the ‘Cats, they finished the first half 1-10 from deep.

“I felt like we got great looks in the first half, some of them went in and out,” Wright said. “Our defense was going to have to carry us. We’re not making our shots, but that can’t affect our mindset on the defensive end.”

In the second half, the Wildcats locked in defensively. They were able to cut a 38-30 halftime deficit to two with 16:26 remaining in regulation after Jaylen Samuels grabbed an offensive board and kicked out to redshirt senior Caleb Daniels for a wide-open three.

“He was big time in this game,” Wright said about Daniels, who he revealed had myocarditis which kept him sidelined from April to August. “He really gives us a sixth starter, and he was huge in this game.”

Being down two in the second half in a game they trailed put the ‘Cats in a familiar position. In their previous game against Creighton, Nova got the Blue Jays lead down to two, but then Villanova went on an 8-minute field goal drought, and Creighton used a 23-5 run to end the game. 

But that wasn’t the case Tuesday night after Daniels knocked down the three, the Cats forced the Musketeers into a shot clock violation on the other end. And out of the timeout, junior Justin Moore drilled another three. 

“He had some really good looks in the first half that were shots that he usually makes that just didn’t go in,” Wright said of Moore. “He just stayed confident offensively, and that’s the sign of a mature, confident player.”

“We’re not really worried about shots going in, or if my shot is going in, we know how capable I am of making shots,” Moore said. “It’s just about getting stops and playing hard on defense, and the offense will come.” 

Nova eventually gained the lead on a Dixon layup, and from then on, Nova’s perimeter players took control.

“He did a great job. He’s real physical in the paint, and he can make plays from the post offensively,” Moore said about Dixon. 

The guard trio of Colin Gillespie (finished with 15 points), Daniels (16 points) and Moore (17 points) combined for 31 of Nova’s 41 second-half points, and their stingy defense held the Musketeers to 30% shooting in the second half.

“I think coach always does a great job of making adjustments and telling us what to do at halftime,” Moore said. “I think as a team, we really came in and really dialed in on defense and when you get stops and play hard on defense that gets us going, and that gets us to get easy baskets on offense.”

Next, ‘Nova will face Temple on December 29 in their final Big 5 matchup, and it will also be the ‘Cats last game before conference play resumes in earnest. 

“We always approach the game with the next game mentality. We don’t really worry about the previous game,” Daniels said.  “We just want to come out, capitalize, and learn from our mistakes in the past… next game is our biggest game, so that’s the number one thing we focus on each game.”