Villanova’s road warriors enjoying improbable run to semifinals
RADNOR >> Jannah Tucker got home in time Monday to be in class by 10:30 a.m. No, she wasn’t out all night partying with friends.
She and her Villanova teammates flew in from Indianapolis that morning after beating Indiana, 69-57, the night before in the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. “It’s been crazy,” Tucker and the Wildcats (2014) did not get to enjoy the comforts of home long. They were back on a flight at 3 o’clock Tuesday afternoon to take on Michigan (26-9) in the semifinals Wednesday night at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
“I don’t think I’ve flown this much in 20 years,” said Villanova coach Harry Perretta, who prefers to travel by train rather than by plane.
This is the longest tournament run by a Villanova women’s team since the Wildcats reached the AIAW semifinals in 1982. The impressive part is that Villanova has done so by playing all of its games on the road because the Pavilion is not available. It is in the early stages of a planned $60 million makeover of the 31-yearold facility. The building is scheduled to reopen in time for the start of the 2018-19 season as the William B. Finneran Pavilion.
So if the Wildcats manage to get by the Wolverines, they will either be in Pullman, Washington to take on Washington State or in Atlanta, Georgia to face Georgia Tech for the title Saturday afternoon.
Villanova opened the tournament with a 59-53 win at Princeton March 17 and then won at Drexel two days later, 56-51. After that, the schedule got really crazy. The Wildcats beat James Madison in overtime last Thursday, 69-67, got in around 2:30 Friday morning so they could be in class by 8:30 a.m, but did not stay long. Villanova was back on a bus headed to the airport by 1 p.m. to catch a flight to Indianapolis.
After beating the Hoosiers Sunday afternoon, the Wildcats stayed in Bloomington and then had a 3:45 a.m. wakeup call Monday to catch the 6 a.m. flight back home.
The constant travel and hotel stays, though, has brought the team closer together.
“It’s made us hyper-focus,” Tucker said. “We’re all we have, especially at Indiana. There were 5,000 people at that game. All you saw was red. You didn’t see any type of blue. The only blue we saw was each other.”
They’ll see a lot of blue at the Crisler Center, but it won’t be of the Villanova variety.
“Playing on the road like this has toughened their resolve, and also taught them that there’s a lot more than just playing,” Perretta said. “You have to pay attention and really put things aside in your mind and really concentrate on what you’re doing.”
It’s been a wild ride for a team that lost its last two regular-season games, both on the road, and then dropped a 56-40 decision to St. John’s in the second round of the Big East Tournament. And then the Wildcats caught fire.
“We’re making more shots,” Perretta said. “That has been our Achilles’ heel all year and still is our Achilles’ heel. We go halves where we shoot 50 percent and then in the second half we shoot that in the teens. We did that at Indiana and we did that at JMU. That’s been our Achilles’ heel, shooting the ball. But when you live from the perimeter you have to try to get by that. So far, what has happened, we have shot the ball better” in the WNIT.
The Wildcats are shooting 35.7 percent overall and 24.8 percent from 3-point range in the tournament. Those numbers are not great, but Villanova shot the ball at a 39.8 percent clip overall and 36.7 percent from 3-point range in its last two games. The Wildcats made 11 3-pointers in each of its last two games.
“Part of the reason we’re shooting better is because we’re playing teams from outside of the conference,” Tucker said. “They haven’t seen our motion set.”
Tucker, a transfer from Tennessee, has upped her game in the last two outings. She scored a season-high 22 points in the win over JMU and followed that performance with 19 points against Indiana. She has shot 13-for-29 overall and 8-for-17 from 3-point land in that set.
“She’s shooting it better,” Perretta said. “Her field goal percentage has gone up dramatically. That’s been a big help.”
“I’m very excited,” Tucker said. “I have a great team and a great coaching staff. They’ve made me feel welcome and told me this was coming, that I was going to get to this point and I’m glad that I am.”
Guard Alex Louin is averaging better than 18 points per game in the tournament. Megan Quinn, the two-time Daily Times Player of the Year from Episcopal Academy, has been solid, too, as have Kelly Jekot, Jordan Dillard and Mary Gedaka.
“Everybody I’ve put in there has given us something positive,” Perretta said. That’s what you need if you’re going to make a run in a tournament.”