Villanova’s Paschall handful on both ends
Eric Paschall was close to perfect in the Final Four. The Villanova University forward became the fifth player to go 10 for 11 or better from the floor in a Final Four game as the Wildcats thrashed the University of Kansas Jayhawks 95-79 on Saturday to advance to the NCAA tournament championship against Michigan. Paschall, a junior transfer from Fordham University, joins a club with some impressive members. Bill Walton set the standard for Final Four performances, going 21 for 22 in UCLA’s 1973 NCAA title game against Memphis. Jerry Lucas of Ohio State in 1961, Billy Thompson of Duke in 1986 and Sean May of North Carolina in 2005 all went 10 for 11 like Paschall. The six-foot-seven junior’s career-high 24 points included four for five from three-point range. Paschall shot 28 per cent from three-point range last season, his first playing for the Wildcats after sitting out the 2015-16 championship year, and then he couldn’t buy a bucket from deep early this season. He has found the range since and now is yet another three-point threat for one of the best shooting teams in the NCAA. The Wildcats set a Final Four record with 18 made threes against Kansas. “Just working with coaches,” Paschall said. “They did a great job of just staying with me, knowing that I was struggling and I didn’t really think about it.”
As a freshman at Fordham, Paschall was one of the Rams’ few weapons. He took a lot of threepointers because the team needed that from him, but he made only 31.5 per cent. He transferred to Villanova after a coaching change. “But as soon as we got him as soon as he came, the year he sat out, he worked really hard,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said.
“And he really became a pretty good three-point shooter. And then he just struggled a little bit. And this summer he was a great threepoint shooter. And in the fall, great. And when he started this season, it was unbelievable. He couldn’t make a shot. And I know people are saying, ‘Why do you let him shoot it?’ But we knew — we had seen two years of him shooting the ball extremely well.
“So we just said to him: ‘Just keep shooting. We know you’re a good shooter.’ ”
Paschall came in averaging 10.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, but he has stepped it up lately. In the East regional semifinal against West Virginia, he scored 14 points, and in the regional final against Texas Tech, he had 12 points and 14 rebounds. “He’s a beast on both ends of the floor,” guard Phil Booth said. “He’s always been great defensively. Now offensively he’s been picking up. It just shows how talented a player he is.”