Back on track, Villanova heads into Big 5 play
RADNOR >> The AdvoCare Invitational could not have come at a better time for the Villanova Wildcats.
After back-to-back home losses to Michigan and Furman knocked Villanova out of the top 25 for the first time since early in the 201314 season, the defending national champions needed to get away.
And the perfect place was sunny Orlando, Fla. It gave the Wildcats a chance to regroup and right the ship heading Saturday’s Big 5 opener against La Salle at the Palestra (3 p.m., ESPN2).
“That was very good,” senior swingman Eric Paschall said. “We got better from it. We took it step-bystep and did a good job of coming together and playing well defensively.”
The Wildcats (5-2) did more than meet Mickey Mouse. They got back to the kind of defense they’ve been known for under Jay Wright. Villanova was giving up 69.8 points per game and allowing the opposition to shoot 43.8 percent overall and 31.1 percent from 3-point range when they left for Florida. They were also averaging 15 turnovers per game.
Villanova came back giving up
64.7 points per night and allowing teams to shoot 41.8 percent overall and 29.9 percent from deep. Their turnovers are down to 14.6 per game and they’re back in the top 25 at No. 23 in both polls.
“We just became a little more solid, a little more connected where we could trust each other and just understanding how we prepare for a game scouting report-wise,” Wright said. “Little things like that you take for granted when you have an older team. When you have a younger team, they’re just not as dialed in. I thought we did a better job of that.”
Two keys to Villanova winning its sixth straight November tournament title were the improved play of sophomores Dhamir CosbyRoundtree and Collin Gillespie. The
6-9 Cosby-Roundtree averaged 11.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and shot 13for-14 from the field to earn Most Outstanding Player honors. Gillespie scored 17 points in the 66-60 win over Florida State in the championship game. He also was better on the defensive end.
“The two sophomores stepped up quickly,” Wright said. “There was a lot of pressure on Collin and Dhamir to be the kind of players we expected them to be as juniors, to do that now and they did that now. Down in that tournament they played very well. Now the consistency of an upperclassman is that they do it every night. Both of them had a great tournament and now we’ve got to continue that every day.”
“In practice, coaches have been on me about gambling for steals,” Gillespie said. “I’ve just tried to be solid and sticking to our defensive concepts.”
It also appears that Wright has settled on a rotation with Paschall, Cosby-Roundtree, Gillespie, senior Phil Booth and freshman Saddiq Bey as the starters, and senior Joe Cremo, sophomore Jermaine Samuels and freshman Cole Swider off the bench.
“I’d really like to get us to 10,” Wright said. “I really would. I want to get (freshmen Jahvon Quinerly and Brandon Slater) in there. Part of their development counts on the other guys, six, seven and eight, doing better, too, so it’s still a work in progress.”
Quinerly and Slater, two of the highest-ranked recruit among the Villanova freshmen, have struggled making the transition to college. Neither played in the game against Florida State.
“I think competitively he is not OK with playing (time),” Wright said of Quinerly. “In terms of being a teammate, he’s handling it extremely well. He knows he has a lot to learn. He’s disappointed. I’m disappointed, not in him, but just that he has to go through the process this way. I would have liked it to be easier for him, but it’s not right now. But he’s handled everything great and I’m really proud of him.”
The Wildcats will see a familiar face on the opposing sideline Saturday in first-year La Salle coach Ashley Howard. He spent five seasons at Villanova where he helped the Wildcats win two of the last three national championships.
Howard is still looking for his first win. The Explorers are 0-7 overall and 0-1 in the Big 5. The Wildcats have won five straight Big 5 titles and 22 consecutive city series games, but Wright knows those numbers mean nothing.
“You watch their Lafayette game, you watch their Temple game, their Drexel game, they could have won those games,” Wright said. “Young guys don’t understand that. You try to tell them, but they’ll find out. They’ll see the intensity that La Salle plays with immediately.”
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NOTES >> This is the first of four straight Big 5 games for the Wildcats. Villanova hosts Temple (Dec.
5) and Saint Joseph’s (Dec. 8) and then visits Penn at the Palestra Tuesday, Dec. 11. Villanova’s last Big
5 loss was a 76-61 setback to Temple at the Pavilion on Dec. 5, 2012. The Wildcats have outscored the opposition by 449 points in its city series winning streak, an average of 20.4 points per game. … Booth needs 45 points to become the 66th member of the 1,000-point club at Villanova.