Defending champ enters NCAAs from different angle
HARTFORD, CONN. — Villanova is coming into the NCAA Tournament this year from an unfamiliar angle.
The defending national champions bring the cache that comes with two NCAA titles in the last three seasons, along with a couple of key senior leaders who have a wealth of postseason experience and, of course, their famously sharpdressed coach.
Beyond that much has changed.
Villanova is a sixth seed in the West Region, facing 11th-seeded Saint Mary's on Thursday night in Hartford. Not too far away from their Philadelphia home, the Wildcats will likely be wellsupported in Connecticut. But for the first time since the 2013 tournament, Villanova is not a No. 1 or 2 seed.
“It's different,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said Wednesday. “I don't think we'd be honest if we didn't admit to that, you know? But it's not bad, you know?”
Villanova had four players drafted off of last year's team, which buzz-sawed through the field to win the school's third title overall and second under Wright. The rebuild this season was made more difficult because a couple of last year's departures were unexpected. Donte DiVincenzo entered the draft after he rocketed to stardom in the tournament. Omari Spellman, a big man with range, also jumped into the draft earlier than most expected.
That left fifth-year senior guard Phil Booth and senior forward Eric Paschall to lead the way on a team that otherwise had very little experience.
The other first-round game Thursday in the South Region is No. 3 seed Purdue vs. No. 14 Old Dominion at Hartford.
In first-round games on Friday, it's No. 8 Mississippi vs. No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 1 Virginia vs. No. 16 GardnerWebb at Columbia, South Carolina; No. 7 Cincinnati vs. No. 10 Iowa and No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 15 Colgate (24-10) at Columbus, Ohio; and No. 4 Kansas State vs. No. 13 UC Irvine and No. 5 Wisconsin vs. No. 12 Oregon at San Jose, California. Third-seeded Purdue is built around the playmaking and scoring of guard Carsen Edwards, and lately he has been missing a lot more than he has been making.
Heading into the Boilermakers' first-round matchup with Old Dominion, the champions of Conference USA, Edwards is 6 for his last 33 from 3-point range. He has also been dealing with a back issue, but he again downplayed that Wednesday.
“I'm OK,” the junior said. “Just taking it day by day, just trying to get treatment and things like that. I don't want it to be a big deal or anything like that.”
Edwards averages 23 points. Ryan Cline is the team's secondleading scorer at 11.9. Edwards is not the most efficient scorer, but his shooting percentages this season have dropped from 45.8 percent from the field to 38.6 and 40.6 percent from 3-point range to 33.5.