Defense makes not-so coincidental return in easy win over Xavier
PHILADELPHIA » Cancel the BOLO and call off the allpoints bulletin. Villanova’s defense no longer is MIA.
After giving up an average of 92 points in their first three conference games, the topranked Wildcats returned order to their defensive universe with another romp over Xavier, this one an 89-65 Big East whipping at essentially a halffull Wells Fargo Center.
It was the first time in nearly a month that the Wildcats held a team under 70 points in a game and less than 30 in a half. The last time was against Temple, Dec. 13.
“It started back at the Hofstra game,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “We started seeing we were lax defensively, losing our habits defensively and rebounding. It was Christmas and we really couldn’t practice and then we had to get ready for DePaul.
“We saw it in the DePaul game, and we didn’t have a lot of time to practice again and then Butler, it just blew up, so we saw it coming but we just didn’t have time to practice. That week after Butler we got to practice and we were a little better against Marquette and then we got a couple of more practices. We just have to keep working at it.”
It helped that the opponent was Xavier, a team the Wildcats (15-1 overall, 3-1 Big East) have dominated since the Musketeers joined the Big East in 2013. Never mind that Xavier (15-3, 3-2) was the 10th-ranked team in the country. The Musketeers have only beaten the Wildcats once in 10 meetings and Villanova’s nine victories have been by an average of more than 18 points.
Xavier came into the game averaging 64.4 points against the Wildcats and is not a team that can light it up from deep like Butler and Marquette. The Musketeers are last in the Big East games in 3-point field goal percentage (29.3), but it was more than that.
Villanova has been out of sync defensively since league play began three weeks ago, not getting out on shooters and not making the proper switches. Against Xavier, the Wildcats looked like the team that led the league in scoring defense for each of the last four years. The Wildcats never allowed the Musketeers to get into an offensive rhythm, which has been Villanova’s trademark.
“We just lost it,” Wright said. “You can’t just say, ‘We’re going to play defense now,’ when you haven’t been doing it for three weeks. You have to get back to your habits of playing together. Playing together defensively is just as important as playing together offensively. You have to trust each other.”
It took a little time for the Wildcats to regain that trust. Giving up 85 points to DePaul, 101 to Butler and 90 to Marquette gave Villanova the motivation it needed to do so.
“If we lose a game 6055 it’s not a problem for us,” guard Phil Booth said, “but for people to think that they can score on us anytime we took that as a challenge personally.”
Villanova set the tone early. Xavier had four points at the first TV timeout and did not crack double digits until Paul Scruggs dropped in a layup with 11:45 to go in the first half.
“We had to get better at our concepts,” swingman Mikal Bridges said. “We had to get better at practicing our concepts on defense and rebounding.”
The key was keeping Trevon Bluiett in check, which has not been a problem over the years. In six meetings, Bluiett has averaged just 8.3 points against the Wildcats. However, the 6-6 senior has been much more of an offensive force this season. He came into the game averaging 19.4 points per game.
Bluiett wound up with 11 points, but he had to work to reach that number. He had to wait more than 10 minutes to score his first points. Bluiett would not find pay dirt until he hit a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left in the first half. He did bury a pair of triples early in the second half, but once again found Villanova’s defense too much to overcome and did not score again. He would up shooting 4-for-11 from the field overall and 2-for-7 from 3-point range.
If not for 41 points from the bench and 42 points in the paint, the outcome would have been worse. No one else was able to pick up the slack.
“That’s what they do to you,” Xavier coach Chris Mack said. “They get in the passing lanes, try to rattle you on offense and shoot a lot of threes.”
After a three-week absence, the Wildcats got back to those concepts Wednesday night.