DiVincenzo early and Bridges late is a Sweet combo
PITTSBURGH » The razzing began as soon as Donte DiVincenzo walked into the locker room following Villanova’s 81-58 romp over Alabama Saturday afternoon in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
It started with a quiet round of applause followed by a few verbal barbs.
“There he is,” forward Eric Paschall said as DiVincenzo walked into the room following his postgame interview responsibilities. “Did you tell them you have to put your (shooting) hand into a bucket of ice water at halftime?”
“The Big Ragu,” as DiVincenzo has come to be known, just smiled. Paschall wasn’t done. “Where’s the other one?” Paschall said, referring to swingman Mikal Bridges.
Phil Booth and Dahmir Cosby-Roundtree chimed in, too. That’s the bond that develops over a long season.
Score 18 and 23 points, as DiVincenzo and Bridges did, respectively, to get the top-seeded Wildcats (32-4) to the Sweet 16 for the second time in three years, and you can expect a little goodnatured ribbing from your teammates.
“It’s all love between everybody,” Bridges said. “We’re going to get on each other if we’re not doing this or that, and that’s what my teammates did. They got on me. They pushed me to play and all the credit has to go to my teammates and my coaches for that second half.”
All eyes were on DiVincenzo and Bridges after the show they put on at PPG Paints Arena. With Jalen Brunson and Omari Spellman in foul trouble, and Bridges and Booth struggling to get into an offensive rhythm, it fell to DiVincenzo to carry the offensive load in the first half.
The 6-5 redshirt sophomore was happy to oblige. He scored all 18 of his points in the first half to stake the Wildcats to a 3227 advantage. DiVincenzo shot 6-for-10 overall and 5-for-9 from 3-point land in the first, and connected on three straight triples to break the game open.
“When Jalen went out early with two fouls (from) being aggressive defensively, I had to go in there and be aggressive as well,” DiVincenzo said. “We were just running things, and I started making shots. Once I started making shots, I noticed they started loading toward me. I knew there was more attention on me so I just had to continue to make the right decisions, whether it was another shot or getting one of my teammates an open look.”
Football coaches like to call it “the next man up,” and it’s the same with basketball. But it also shows just how deep and dangerous the Wildcats are. The captains — Brunson, Bridges and Booth — shot a combined 1-for-10 and 1-for-7 from deep for a grand total of seven points, and Villanova was still able to take a five-point lead into the locker room at half.
“A lot of people say we have six starters, including myself, but we have more than six players,” DiVincenzo said. “We have Collin (Gillespie) and Dada (Cosby-Roundtree) coming in behind me and they bring great energy, too, so I guess you could say it is next man up.”
DiVincenzo is no stranger to shining on the big stage. It was his third game of at least 15 points in four NCAA tournament appearances. He is averaging 15.5 points per game in the tournament for his career.
“That’s just the flow of the game,” DiVincenzo said. “(Thursday) I felt I could have gotten a few more shots up just by being aggressive, but I was just trying to make the right play and I think I ended up with eight assists.”
DiVincenzo did cool off in the second half as if someone had put his hand in that bucket of ice water. No problem, though, Bridges was there to take the baton and run with it. The 6-7 redshirt junior scored 16 points in an 18-1 tear in the opening four minutes of the second half, and wound up scoring 22 points after the break.
Alabama never recovered from that opening salvo.
“My teammates found me, and I knocked down shots,” Bridges said.
It was that way all weekend. The Wildcats put on an impressive display of 3-point shooting in the first two rounds. The Wildcats shot 17-for-41 from deep against the Tide. That came on the heels of a 14for-27 performance against Radford Thursday, making Villanova the first team in tournament history with at least 14 triples in its first two games.
It also gave the Wildcats a chance to poke a little fun at their teammates’ expense.
“It’s all said. good,” DiVincenzo