City of Basketball Love

Finn Courtney (@finncourtney_)
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VILLANOVA - For Villanova all season, the question has been who will step up as the second scorer aside from star forward Eric Dixon? Who would be the 2, in the Wildcats’ metaphorical 1-2 punch?

Tuesday, sixth-man Tyler Perkins stepped up, with the former Penn star and Dixon playing that 1-2 role to a tee, pouring in a combined 42 points to lead the Wildcats over Big East rival Seton Hall, 79-67. The win also marked five straight for Kyle Neptune and Co., tying his longest win streak as Villanova’s head coach and a positive step into conference play.

“This is the Big East, they’re gonna try to take away different things and it’s gonna be different guys, different nights [and] obviously today was Tyler’s night,” Neptune said. “[Seton Hall] took away some of our other guys, you’re going against high-level coaches, high-level players, they’re gonna follow a game play and we’re gonna need different guys to step up.

Dixon - the nation’s leading scorer with 25.7 ppg - went to work early against Seton Hall (5-7, 0-1), scoring seven points in just over four minutes to open play. While foul trouble hampered the Abington alum in the first half, Dixon finished strong with 25 points (8-18, 1-6 3PA, 8-10 FT) on the day, 12 of which came with under five minutes to go, along with a team-high six rebounds and three assists. 

The Wildcat faithful have gotten used to that kind of dominance from Dixon, as the All-American candidate has registered 20 or more points in all but one game played this season and fought hard for the 25 points and six rebounds tonight against a stout defensive unit.

“We look at their numbers and obviously [Shaheen Hollaway] does a great job preparing their team, one of the best defensive teams in the country,” Neptune said. “If we can defend and rebound like that, I think we’ll be in a good spot.”

As foul trouble felled the big man early and Villanova (8-4, 1-0) looked out of sync offensively without him, Perkins checked in and the sophomore made a major impact, seemingly as if he never checked out again.

The former Penn star put together his best career game as a Wildcat with 17 points, as Perkins shot an outstanding 86% from the floor (6-7 FG), with 5-6 shots coming from beyond the arc, along with five rebounds and a +20 in the box score. 

While it’s not been the easiest transition for the Maryland native (13.7 ppg a season ago vs 8.8 ppg this season), he’s made selectiveness a trait and it’s paid dividends for him game after game. Since joining Villanova, his shooting percentages have all increased across the board,  culminating in Tuesday’s breakthrough performance in his first ever Big East game.

“I hear a lot about [the Big East], like the physicality and everything, but it was just good to be a part of it and I’m looking forward to a lot more games,” Perkins said. “[Tonight] was really just my teammates, they were finding me in positions for me to be able to succeed.”

Senior guard Jordan Longino also had arguably his best game of the campaign, finishing with a season-high 15 points (3-6 FG, 2-4 3PA, 7-7 FT). It’s been four seasons of up and downs for the former Germantown Academy star, but Tuesday marked a step in the right direction with conference play from here on out.

Along with veteran guard Jhamir Brickus, the former La Salle standout and Longino played conductor in some beautiful ball movement on Tuesday night with 12 assists combined between the two. Between last Wednesday’s game against Fairleigh Dickinson (19) and against Seton Hall (17), Villanova has had 36 assists in just two games.

“They’re just so unselfish and they’re making the right reads and I think they’re really starting to trust each other,” Neptune said. “They become the decision maker, so if they can go score, great, if not, they make a play for somebody else, so I think if our guys continue to share the ball like that, we’ll be in a good spot.”

Going up against KenPom’s 36th ranked defense in the Pirates, Villanova made no major adjustments and instead stuck by their guns. With an emphasis on ball movement and shooting from deep (21 attempts from beyond the arc), the Wildcats finished with plenty of offensive success all throughout, shooting 55.3% from the floor (26-47 FG) and 42.9% from three-point range (9-21 3PA).

“We share the ball, we try to give them different looks, but we didn’t try to do anything different, we can’t go into a game at this point of the season and make up new things to do,” Neptune said. “You gotta go with your strengths [and we] really didn’t switch it up too much.”

Defensively, Villanova switched it up all game and to success, forcing eight Pirate turnovers and scoring 13 off them, including a gorgeous steal and pass up ahead by freshman Josiah Moseley to a streaking Brickus.

Switching between man-to-man and different zone variations (primarily types of a matchup zone Tuesday night) is nothing new for Neptune and his team, in his own words, it’s a way to keep opponents “on their toes.”

“We’ve switched our defense up all year and it’s something we’ll just continue to do, no matter what game it is,” Neptune said. “I thought that we kept guys in front of us for long stretches, kept guys out [of] the paint. If you don’t give a team an advantage and you force them into contested looks, that’s kind of what our defensive philosophy is.”

There will be no rest for the weary, however, as the Wildcats will travel to Omaha on the 21st to take on the Creighton Bluejays and the three-time reigning Big East Defensive Player of the Year in Ryan Kalkbrenner. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. EST and with a now-five game win streak on the line, Villanova will need their A-game to make it six.

“We just taking it one day at a time, tomorrow we get an off day, we’re gonna watch film, the next day, we’re gonna practice [and] we do what we do,” Longino said. “Nothing changes for us, mindset [and] just taking every day the same way, trying to get better.”