City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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“Not a pretty game,” were the first words out of Villanova head coach Jay Wright’s mouth following their 63-47 win over the College of Charleston.

Wright's Wildcats struggled mightily to put the ball in the hoop, shooting just 21-of-48 (43.8 percent) from the field and 5-of-17 (29.4 percent) from beyond the arc.

Those type of offensive numbers usually match the losing side’s statistics, but on Wednesday night at the Pavilion, those numbers shined compared to those put up by the opponent.

The Cougars  just couldn’t get into an offensive rhythm tonight, shooting 19-of-54 (35.2 percent) from the field and an abysmal 4-of-22 (18.2 percent) from 3-point range. A lone bright spot in their offensive effort was sophomore forward Jerrell Brantley, who finished with 18 points and seven rebounds.

Although nothing was clicking offensively, the visiting team never conceded to the reigning National Champions.

“It just wasn’t a team we could put away. I think credit goes to them,” Wright said. “We just found a way to gut that out. It’s good when you get into an ugly game when everything isn’t working well, a lot of the reason was they played good defense, and we found a way to come out with a win.”

After starting the game down 5-2, Villanova shot off a 30-11 run over the next 13:42 to give them a 32-16 lead, which everyone in attendance thought would put the nail in the Cougars’ coffin.

The College of Charleston failed to go away quietly though, as they hung around and sent the game into halftime trailing by just 14, 35-21.

After the break, Villanova saw their lead grow to as much as 20 before a streak of 9:06 without a Villanova field goal saw the Cougars slowly close the Wildcats’ lead but they couldn’t close it quickly enough as the final buzzer sounded and the Wildcats remained victorious.

Villanova’s lack of offensive spark can be greatly attributed to the fact that they’re coming off of a treacherous stretch that has seen them play four games in the last seven days and six games in the last 13 days.

“I think it was good for us to experience this,” Wright said. “On the other hand, I don’t know if we were mentally prepared for this many games. We had a couple of them, Western Michigan and maybe this one, where we didn’t come with great energy. We have to learn that and bring it every night. That’s just something this team is going to have to learn.”

Without the senior leadership of recent graduates Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu, the role of keeping the team prepared has fallen on senior Josh Hart, who had his first double-double of the young season on Wednesday, finishing with 13 points and 11 boards.

Hart’s effort was aided by fellow senior Kris Jenkins, who finished with 11 points. Also chipping in for the Wildcats were redshirt sophomores Mikal Bridges and Eric Paschall, who both finished with eight points and five rebounds,

“This was the key to Ryan and Daniel last year. It was the mental mature approach to every game,” Wright said. “They came to work every day. We’re getting better at that. Josh is really getting good at that but our team’s got to get that.”

Usually after such a tough stretch of games that included both traveling to Indiana and to South Carolina, minutes would be a concern; but for a team with as much depth as Villanova, it’s just a matter of getting their whole rotation healthy.

“I thought we held up pretty well,” Wright said. “So I’m not (concerned), knowing that we’re going to get Phil Booth back. If we weren’t going to get Phil Booth back, I think I would be a little more concerned.”

While the nagging injury to junior guard Phil Booth has been problematic to Villanova’s depth and could negatively affect the legs of the other guys filling in for him, Josh Hart has felt the exact opposite, loving the extended playing time he’s been receiving.

“However many minutes I play, I’m going to play as best I can and as hard as I can,” Hart said. “I’m not really worried about minutes. I’d love to play the whole game if Coach would let me. That’s just my competitive nature, I always want to be out there.”

At a time in the game where the fatigue was seeming to hit the Wildcats the hardest, shortly after their lead was cut to just ten and was back up at 13, with just under 17 minutes remaining, Wright unveiled an unorthodox lineup that was without a traditional point guard or center.

Hart, Jenkins, Bridges, Paschall and redshirt freshman Donte DiVincenzo took the court for the Wildcats and went on a 7-0 run over just two minutes of game time that stuck the nail in the coffin of the College of Charleston as they saw their deficit grow from 13 to 20 in the blink of an eye.

From that point on, the Cougars showed signs of life, but had dug themselves too large of a hole to come out of.

As for the Wildcats, struggling to put the opponent away for good is something that they will need to improve on if they want to attain the same level of success they are accustomed to on the Main Line.

“You saw the way these guys (College of Charleston) came in here,” Wright said. “They didn’t go away. Somebody’s going to get you if you don’t bring it every night and you don’t make that your habit.”

Hart’s job as leader is to make sure that the Wildcats make it their habit and it’s something that he wants to take care off as soon as the Wildcats meet back up from their brief holiday break so they can work out the kinks before they head into their Big 5 schedule.

“As a team, we still have a lot to learn and this game is definitely a tough one,” Hart said. “But it’s something we can learn from down the road. Get way for a couple days and come back and watch film on this and learn and move onto the next one.”