Grand Master Jay’s defensive mixes scratch Butler’s edge
PHILADELPHIA » There was something different as Villanova set up on defense early in the second half of Saturday’s 86-75 Big East victory over a Butler team that had won the last three meetings between the teams.
And it didn’t take long for many in the season-high crowd of 20,603 at the Wells Fargo Center to notice the change.
“They’re in a zone,” one fan said in a tone just above a whisper.
It wasn’t what he said, but the way he said it, with complete surprise.
Some teams, like Syracuse and Temple under John Chaney, are known for their zone defense. It’s their trademark.
Villanova, under Jay Wright, is a man-to-man team. The Wildcats are an old-school Big East, in-your-face, my five against your five, manto-man squad. Oh sure, the top-ranked Wildcats play the occasional 2-3 zone as a change of pace or to give the opposition a different look, but only for a possession or two and rarely for extended periods.
And junk defenses, like the box-and-one, are even scarcer.
Yet these are strange times on the Main Line. Villanova is without redshirt junior guard Phil Booth for several more weeks with a fractured bone in his shooting hand. And redshirt junior forward Eric Paschall has missed the last two games with a concussion. There is no telling when he will return.
That’s nearly 22 points, eight rebounds and 5 ½ assists out of the starting lineup every night, not to mention a combined 158 career games in a Villanova uniform. You don’t lose that kind of veteran leadership and replace them with freshmen and expect to continue to beat teams by double digits the way the Wildcats (22-2 overall, 10-2 Big East) have of the season.
Two of those rookie’s, guard Collin Gillespie and forward Jermaine Samuels, have missed a combined 18 games because of broken bones in their left hands. Saturday was Gillespie’s eighth game since returning from the injured list. Samuels was playing in his second game and only had two practices this week, Tuesday and Friday.
So they’re still learning the ropes and with Butler carving up Villanova’s man-to-man defense in much the same way it did in its 101-93 victory over the Wildcats back in December, Wright knew he had to make a change if the Wildcats were going to get back on the winning track and extend their streak of games without back-to-back losses to 171.
“We’re a little bit in survival mode,” said Wright, whose Wildcats have not dropped consecutive games since losing to Louisville and North Carolina to end the 2012-13 season. “It’s not fair to expect Jermaine and Collin and Dhamir (Cosby-Roundtree, another freshman) to execute like the older guys so you just have to keep things simple. It’s not because they don’t get it, they were hurt. They haven’t practiced. So we just had to survive for a little bit and I think that’s what we did today. It wasn’t pretty, but we survived.”
Wright said done he most wanted to play zone in Wednesday’s loss to St. John’s, but didn’t because Samuels had just the one practice before he returned to action.
But, with Butler shooting 55 percent overall and 53 percent from 3-point range in the first half against Villanova’s man-to-man defense, Wright made the switch. He mixed a 2-3 zone with a box-and-one against Kelan Martin, along with the traditional man-toman to cool the Bulldogs down and it worked.
Butler’s shooting percentages plummeted to 34 and 31 in the after the break. Martin did finished with 30 points, to match Donte DiVincenzo for game-high honors, and eight 3-pointers, but he only had 13 and three in the second half, and none in the first seven minutes of the final 20 as the Wildcats opened up a 53-44 lead.
The Bulldogs also had just two fast break points in the second half after getting 14 in the first half.
“I thought the pace in the first half was in our favor, just up and down the court,” Butler coach LaVall Jordan said. “We did get stops and we did get out in transition. Coach (Wright) made the adjustment to go zone, which slowed us down and gave them an opportunity to not rest, but you’re not up-and-down the court in transition like we were in the first half. Give him credit. That’s a great call. Maybe if we make a few of those (shots) the game changes.”
The shots did not fall because the Wildcats got out on the shooters and kept the kick-out passes to a minimum. Butler only had six assists in the second half after collecting nine in the first 20 minutes. The Bulldogs had 20 helpers in the win in Indianapolis several months ago.
“It’s not that much different,” guard Donte DiVincenzo said of playing the zone. “We practice it a lot so we’re used to playing it.”
The key is communication.
“You just know where there scorers are and make sure that everybody is on the same page,” DiVincenzo said.
The Wildcats were on the same page defensively in the second half Saturday, which bodes well as Villanova heads into the most difficult part of its schedule. The Wildcats play four of their last six games on the road, which includes trips to No. 5 Xavier, Creighton and Seton Hall.
So until Booth and Paschall return, don’t be surprised if the Wildcats do whatever it takes to stay in the hunt for their fifth straight Big East regular-season title. They are, after all, in survival mode.