’Nova’s Robinson-Earl raring to meet his hometown team KANSAS AT VILLANOVA
RADNOR >> After running his team through a practice Friday, Villanova coach Jay Wright pulled freshman big man Jeremiah RobinsonEarl aside for a brief chat.
With top-ranked Kansas
(9-1) coming to town Saturday for a noon showdown with the No. 18 Wildcats (82) at the Wells Fargo Center, Wright wanted to make sure the 6-foot-9 rookie from Overland Park, Kan., who selected the Wildcats over the Jayhawks, was in the right frame of mind to face what is essentially his hometown team.
Wright’s concern really wasn’t necessary.
“We’ve been fortunate in that a lot of our guys who have had those kind of games we didn’t have to talk to them about it,” Wright said. “Jalen (Brunson) was like that. You never had to talk to him about that stuff. It’s more based on the individual, whether you think it could get into their head. Jeremiah’s the kind of guy you don’t really worry about that.”
Wright wanted to be certain, but he was so confident in Robinson-Earl’s mindset that he almost forgot to have
RECORDS:
No. 1Kansas (9-1) vs. No. 18Villanova (8-2)
Wells Fargo Center, Saturday, noon, Fox29
TV: BOTTOM LINE:
Two ranked teams meet as No. 1Kansas visits No. 18Villanova in a non-conference showdown. Kansas is 1-0against ranked opponents this season, while Villanova is 0-2 against ranked teams.
BIG MEN ON CAMPUS:
The electric Devon Dotson is averaging 19.6points, 4.8assists and 2.2steals to lead the Jayhawks. Udoka Azubuike is also a primary contributor, maintaining an average of 14.2points, 8.1rebounds and two blocks per game. The Wildcats have been led by Saddiq Bey, who is averaging 16.3points and 5.5 rebounds.
CREATING OFFENSE:
Dotson has made or assisted on 40percent of all Kansas field goals over the last
his little post-practice chat.
“(Assistant coach) Dwayne Anderson had to remind me,” Wright said.
The conversation was brief, as Wright expected.
“I have a pretty small circle so it’s not like I have a lot of people saying, ‘Oh, you have Kansas coming up. You have to have a big-time game,’” Robinson-Earl said “I like to keep people around me that don’t try to bring outside noise and have me focused on other things than what five games. The sophomore guard has accounted for 34field goals and 30assists in those games.
Villanova has scored 84.5points per game and allowed 62.3over its four-game home winning streak.
STREAK SCORING: ASSIST-TO-FG RATIO:
The Jayhawks have recently created buckets via assists more often than the Wildcats. Villanova has
38assists on 84field goals (45.2 percent) across its past three contests while Kansas has assists on
57of 97field goals (58.8percent) during its past three games.
The stout Kansas defense has held opposing offenses to a field goal percentage of 38percent, the 27th-best mark in the country. Villanova has allowed opponents to shoot 44.5 percent from the field through 10 games (ranked 257th).
DID YOU KNOW:
the task at hand is.”
That task is a tall one for Robinson-Earl and the Wildcats. Kansas comes into a game on a roll. The Jayhawks have won nine in a row since they dropped a 68-64 decision to Duke in the season opener.
One of those nine wins was a 90-84 victory in overtime over a Dayton team that was unranked at the time, but has since moved up to No. 13 in the Associated Press top 25. The Jayhawks followed that with a
72-58 victory over a Colorado team that was ranked No. 20.
The game will be a test for Robinson-Earl, who is off to a solid start to his career. He’s leading the team in rebounding (9.7 per game), second in steals (1.2 per game) and fourth in scoring (12.1 ppg) and assists (2.0).
Kansas features one of the more formidable front lines in the country in 7-0,
270-pound senior center Udoka Azubuike and 6-10,
260-pound sophomore forward David McCormick. Azubuike is averaging 14.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and two blocked shots a game. McCormick is averaging 9.9 points and 5.0 boards.
And then there is the history. The Wildcats and Jayhawks have waged some epic battles since Bill Self arrived in Lawrence in 2003. The teams have met seven times with Villanova holding a 4-3 edge.
The Wildcats won 83-62 at the Wells Fargo Center in 2005 when the Jayhawks were ranked No. 2, and then knocked off Kansas twice on the way to winning national titles in 2016 and 2018.
“Every game is a tall task,” Robinson-Earl said. “We have a lot of goals we want to achieve as a team and if we can keep our mindset on that we can achieve a lot of great things. It’s not like, ‘We’re playing Kansas. We have to really play hard.’ We should be doing that every day in practice and in every game.”
A lot of people view this game as a litmus test for a Villanova team that starts one junior (Collin Gillespie), three sophomores (Saddiq Bey, Jermaine Samuels and Cole Swider) and one freshman (Robinson-Earl), and brings one junior (Dahmir Cosby-Roundtree), a sophomore (Brandon Slater) and two freshmen (Justin Moore and Bryan Antoine) off the bench.
Neither Wright nor Robinson-Earl, however, see it that way.
“We’re a team that’s in transition so much that you can see a difference from our Ohio State game to our Baylor game to this game,” Wright said. “I hope we see a difference because we’re so inexperienced that every experience we get is great for us. Every experience we get we’re going to learn from. We learned from all three of the Big 5 games. We learned from the Delaware game so when you’re playing a game of this caliber you know you’re going to learn a lot.”
“We’re a younger team, but we’re learning very quickly,” Robinson-Earl said. “Once we get our habits down and stay locked in on what the coaches are saying, we can be a great team.”
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NOTES >> Former Villanova greats Allan Ray and Jim Washington will have their jerseys retired at halftime. Ray wore No. 14 during his career (2002-06) and ranks seventh in career scoring with 2,025 points. Washington sported No. 50 in his career (1962-65) and is 57th in scoring (1,146 points) and second in rebounding (1,194). The ceremony is part of the team’s annual Alumni Day. … After Kansas the Wildcats are off until they open Big East play against Xavier Dec. 30 at the Pavilion (6:30).