Monumental Senior Day send-off includes another title
RADNOR >> As is tradition, Villanova took a little time before Saturday’s home finale against No. 23 Creighton at the Pavilion to honor Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins and Darryl Reynolds.
And in keeping with that time-honored custom, Villanova held a modest pregame ceremony before the Wildcats went out and whipped the Bluejays, 79-63, to wrap up yet another Big East regular-season title and the top seed in the upcoming Big East Tournament. There were flowers, framed jerseys, standing ovations and, of course, tears. No Senior Day celebration would be complete without plenty of water works, especially from the moms. However, that finely orchestrated ritual was for the player, their families and the fans.
This, though, was not your average Senior Day celebration, but a chance to honor the most successful class in program history and close out the Pavilion at the same time.
The 31-year-old facility is scheduled to undergo a $60 million overhaul beginning in June and will not reopen until the start of the 2018-19 basketball season.
That Hart, Jenkins and Reynolds, who missed his fifth straight game with sore ribs, got to close out the Pavilion with yet another gritty win was only fitting because the numbers they have compiled in their collective career is staggering.
Here are just a few of the highlights:
124 wins, and counting, the most in program history.
An 88.6 winning percentage over four years, again the best ever.
Four straight outright Big East regularseason championships, the first class in conference history to accomplish that feat.
A 62-9 record in conference play with one game to go. Again, that’s the best mark over a four-year span in conference history.
Four consecutive outright Big 5 titles, the most in City Series history. Hart, Jenkins and Reynolds went undefeated (16-0) in Big 5 play.
A school-record 48game winning streak at the Pavilion and a 49-1 record in games played on campus, and a 60-3 record at home overall.
They are the only class to win 30 games in back-to-back seasons in program history, and have a chance to make it three in a row this season.
Hart, Jenkins and Reynolds have never lost back-to-back games, a string of 140 straight games dating back to the end of the 2012-13 season.
And then there was that little memento they brought home last April from Houston that is on permanent display in the trophy case across the street in the vestibule of the Davis Center, the team’s practice facility.
But, as Hart and Jenkins said afterward, they aren’t finished yet. They have a minimum of three games left in their collegiate careers and a maximum of 10 games, depending on what the Wildcats do in the Big East and NCAA Tournaments, to add to those gaudy numbers.
So Saturday’s Senior Day festivities were not the official sendoff, but the first of many. There will be one when the Wildcats close out the regular season Saturday against Georgetown in Washington, another following the Big East Tournament and the final one when the season comes to an end in the big dance.
Where and when that will be, no one knows, but rest assured, the Wildcats, especially the seniors, will fight every step of the way.
“Since Darryl got hurt I don’t think we were playing well, but we were playing really tough,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “We were scrapping. We were surviving and I think that goes to the character of Kris and Josh … They do whatever has to be done and once they do it, the other guys follow.”
That drive to succeed was evident in the second half as the Wildcats turned a see-saw battle into another double-digit victory. Villanova wore Creighton down, even though the Wildcats only had seven healthy players available.
The Bluejays had a 4543 lead with 14 minutes, 17 seconds to play in the game. Exactly eight minutes later the Wildcats were up, 65-54, and Creighton coach Greg McDermott was forced to burn a timeout.
Jenkins and Hart were right in the middle of the turnovers, as were Eric Paschall (careerhigh 19 points) and Mikal Bridges (11 points, eight rebounds and five steals), but it Jenkins and Hart who set the tone on senior day.
“We just battle,” Hart said. “That’s what we do.”
It was a fitting way to close out the Pavilion as we know it, with an old-school, grind-it-out win that Villanova fans have come to expect.
The Pavilion has seen better days and is in desperate need of a makeover, as evidenced by the puddle at center court shortly after the game.
“This was definitely the building’s last day,” Wright said. “It had nothing left in it.”
Hart and Jenkins looked a little worn, too. They’ve had to play a lot of minutes because of the losses of Omari Spellman to an NCAA timeline issue, and the injuries to Phil Booth and Reynolds. Yet they found the energy to make sure Senior Day ended on the right note.
“If you look at talented players across the country, there are a lot of them,” Wright said. “Of those talented players, these two are the most intelligent and humble of any I’ve seen … I think that’s they’re greatest quality, besides their talent.”