Villanova on its best defense vs. Howard, Marquette
Phil Booth didn’t have to look at a scouting report to know the daunting task 14th-ranked Villanova faces when it takes on No. 10 Marquette Saturday afternoon (2:30, FOX29) at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
“They’re a very good team,” Booth said after Villanova’s overtime victory over Creighton Wednesday night. “A lot of great players with (Markus) Howard, the Hauser brothers (Sam and Joey), they’re good inside, too. It’s going to be a great challenge at their place.”
The Wildcats (19-4, 10-0 Big East) have been equal to the challenge for the last 11 games, 10 of which have come in league play. Villanova is off to its best Big East start in program history and the best in the conference since Connecticut began the
1998-99 season 11-0.
A large part of that success has to do with defense. Villanova has done a great job of stopping or at least slowing down the top scorers in the league. The Wildcats held Seton Hall’s Myles Powell to three points, Butler’s Kamar Baldwin to
11 points and shut out Jessie Govan of Georgetown. That trio ranks fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in scoring in conference play.
Shamorie Ponds of St. John’s, the No. 2 scorer in the league, did tally
23 points against Villanova, but just eight in the second half and two in the final 10 minutes. Those points came at the free throw line with 59 seconds remaining.
Containing Howard, though, will be the most difficult defensive task the Wildcats have faced. The
5-11 junior guard is averaging 24.6 points per game. That’s tops in the Big East and fifth nationally. He scored a Big East record 53 points in a win over Creighton, poured in
45 in victories over Kansas State and Buffalo, and has tallied 30 or more points on five occasions.
Howard is averaging 19.8 points per game against Villanova for his career and 23.5 in the last four outings against the Wildcats.
“He’s got all of the qualities of a great offensive player,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said of Howard. “Some guys are good at moving without the ball, coming off screens, which he’s great at, but they can’t create their own shot or vice versa. Some guys are good off the dribble but don’t move well without the ball. And some guys are just scorers. They can’t find the open man. They can only get their own shot. He does everything. He’s got every aspect of the game. He’s got deep range. He’s got a mid-range game and he can get to the rim. He’s just complete … when you have every aspect of all the offensive skills, that’s special.”
Yet, the Golden Eagles (19-4, 8-2) are not a one-man show. Sam Hauser (15.7) and Joey Hauser (10.4) are averaging double figures and shooting 40 and 47 percent, respectively, from 3-point range.
“I think part of what makes (Howard) so successful is that he has other great shooters around him,” Wright said. “If he didn’t have the great shooters around him he wouldn’t be able to do a lot of the things he can do because you could just double him and get it out of his hands, but you can’t do that.”
Marquette’s 70-69 loss to St. John’s Tuesday night, its second to the Red Storm this season, prevented this game from being an outright battle for first place in the Big East. The Golden Eagles are two games behind the Wildcats in the race for the regular-season title with eight games to play.
And Marquette has not fared well against the Wildcats recently. Villanova has won four in row and 12 of the last 13 meetings. Marquette’s only win in that stretch was a 74-72 decision in Milwaukee in 2017.
“We know we have a huge challenge coming up with Villanova coming into town,” Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “I have so much respect for Jay and what they’ve done as a program. In preparing for them, it’s not fun, but you’ve got to admire how well they’ve come along as a team and the job Booth and (Eric) Paschall had done as leaders.”
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NOTES >> Villanova’s 11-game winning streak is the fourth-longest active streak in Division I, topped only by No. 1 Tennessee (17), No. 4 Gonzaga (13) and Washington (12), and equaled by Wofford and Sam Houston State. It’s also the longest since the 2014-15 team won 16 games in a row. … Booth continues to climb the career list in points and assists. He ranks 47th in points (1,260) and 22nd in assists (329). … The Wildcats play five of their last eight games on the road. They also visit St. John’s (Feb.
17), Georgetown (Feb. 20), Xavier (Feb. 24) and finish the regular season at Seton Hall (March 9).