City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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BOSTON--When Mikal Bridges finally got to his locker to look at his phone after Villanova’s Sweet 16 win against West Virginia, he had to watch the play.

During the second half of Friday night’s game, Bridges cocked back for what looked like a monster slam. Instead, Mountaineers forward Sagaba Konate went up with two hands and stuffed him at the rim.

Bridges hadn’t realized how impressive the block was when the play happened in real time, but now he couldn’t stop watching it, not quite able to wrap his head around what had happened.

“That block was crazy,” he said showing the play to redshirt-junior guard Phil Booth at the locker next to him. “He kept going up.”

Konate and frontcourt partners Lamont West, Esa Ahmad and Wesley Harris, all listed at 6-foot-8, made things difficult for the Wildcats throughout much of Friday’s game. Just 20 of Villanova’s 90 points came in the paint.

Despite the final score, Villanova coach Jay Wright described the game as an old-school, grind-out type of contest.

The Wildcats expect their Elite Eight game on Sunday will be much of the same. Waiting for Villanova is Texas Tech, another Big 12 team that will challenge Wright's squad in similar ways.

“The physicality West Virginia played with is the same Texas Tech is going to bring with the length they have on the defensive end,” Booth said.  “As you saw last night with Konate they really protect the floor...Texas Tech brings a lot of that athleticism as well. They’re one of the best defensive teams in the country.”

The Red Raiders, the No. 3 seed in the East Region, took down No. 2 seed Purdue, 78-65, in the second game in Boston on Friday. They blocked five shots, picked up five steals and forced the Boilermakers into 17 turnovers.

While Villanova boasts the nation’s top-ranked scoring offense at 87 points per game, Texas Tech has the country’s 15th best defense, holding opponents to 64.6 points per contest.

 “They come from a conference with a lot of athletes, a lot of great coaches, a lot of great defensive schemes,” Villanova junior guard Jalen Brunson said. “They’re physical. They play hard. I mean, they wouldn’t be in this position if they didn’t do those things.”

Though Texas Tech lacks the frontcourt depth of West Virginia, the Red Raiders have plenty of size across the board.

Senior guard Keenan Evans, the team’s leading scorer, and freshman guard Davide Moretti, both listed at 6-foot-3, were the only two of the 10 Texas Tech players to appear in the win against Purdue who were shorter than 6-foot-5.

The Red Raiders are filled with big, athletic perimeter players, including freshman Zhaire Smith and senior Justin Gray, who combined for 25 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks and two steals against Purdue.

“We watched film of Texas Tech and West Virginia playing each other, man, it was more physical than our game, but a very well-coached team, very disciplined on both ends of the floor,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “(Texas Tech) can really grind you.”

“They play at least ten guys,” Wright added. “They’re going to be able to wear--try to wear us down, much like West Virginia did.”

Before Friday’s game, Wright said Villanova's November game against Tennessee at the Battle for Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas in November was this group’s first test against a high-level, athletic, physical opponent.

Wildcats’ redshirt-junior forward Eric Paschall said Villanova he thought Seton Hall, Providence, which gave Villanova one of its four losses this season, and Alabama, which Villanova beat in the second round of the tournament, were teams he felt played similarly to West Virginia.

What was the key for the Wildcats against those squads?

“We’ve had a few teams like that, and we just did a great job of matching their physicality," Paschall said Friday night.

During his press conference on Saturday, Texas Tech coach Chris Beard gave Wright credit as a revolutionary for college basketball.

“He’s the one that kind of invented small ball,” Beard said.

When Wright began his four guard system in the Sweet 16 against North Carolina in 2005 with Kyle Lowry, Randy Foye, Allen Ray and MIke Nardi, now the Director of Basketball Operations, only Foye was taller than 6-foot-2.

It would have been difficult for those teams to matchup with Texas Tech, especially when trying to go inside against 6-foot-11 senior forward Tommy Hamilton, 6-foot-9 junior center Norense Odiase and 6-foot-8 senior forward Zach Smith, who had 14 points against Purdue on Friday.

That’s not so much the case with this group. Three of the four guards in Bridges (6-7), Booth (6-5), DiVincenzo (6-5) and Brunson (6-3) are usually paired with redshirt-freshman forward Omari Spellman (6-9) and Paschall (6-9).

“I think Omari and Erica Paschall and Mikal and our guards have good size,” Wright said has helped this group deal with big, physical teams better than those in the past.

Texas Tech comes into the game after holding its first three tournament opponents to 66 points or fewer. The Wildcats have scored more than 80 points in each of their three tournament wins, so something will have to give on Sunday when the two teams tip-off at 2:20 p.m.

“Texas Tech, they’re going to do what they do and play defense,” Brunson said. “Play defense the way they play defense and play offense the way they play offense, and we’ve got to do what we do. We have to play smart and play with pride, do what we do for 40 minutes.”