Experience at a premium, Villanova embarks on season
Jay Wright shook his head side to side when asked if he felt his Villanova Wildcats deserved to be ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press preseason top 25.
Wright said he was shocked at the ranking, especially since the poll came out two days after the Wildcats dropped a 72-61 exhibition decision to USC in Los Angeles.
“I guess nobody watched that,” Wright said.
What Wright did not know was that the preseason ballots were due Oct. 15, four days before the game was played.
“We’re not a No. 10 team in the country,” Wright said. “I would hope by the end of the season we could be and I appreciate (the selection), it’s probably respect of what our guys have done previously. But we know we’ve got a lot to earn.”
Wright has reason to be skeptical as Villanova heads into its 100th season, which officially kicks off at
8:30 Tuesday night against Army at the Pavilion (FS!,
610-ESPN).
He has to replace Eric Paschall and Phil Booth from a team that went 2610, won the Big East regular-season title for the fifth time in six years and the Big East tournament championship for the third straight year and the fourth time in the last five seasons. He has to do so with the youngest team he’s had in his 19 years on the Main Line, in terms of experience, according to kenpom.com. The team has a combined 0.82 average Junior guard Collin Gillespie, here passing the ball around St. John’s guard Greg Williams Jr., is one of the veterans Villanova coach Jay Wright will be counting on to lead a young team this season.
years of experience.
The only senior on the roster is Tim Saunders, a walk-on. Wright will rely heavily on juniors Collin Gillespie (10.9 points per game, 2.7 assists per game), Jermaine Samuels (6.4 ppg,
5.4 rebounds per game) and Dahmir Cosby-Roundtree
(5.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg), sophomores Saddiq Bey, Cole Swider and Brandon Slater and a talented freshman class that includes forwards Jermaine Robinson-Earl, Eric Dixon (Abington), and
guards Bryan Antoine, Justin Moore and Chris Arcidiacono, the younger brother of Villanova great Ryan Arcidiacono.
Antoine is out until at least later this month following shoulder surgery. Gillespie was sidelined with plantar fasciitis shortly after he and Samuels led Team USA to a bronze medal at the Pan American Games, and then broke his nose in a collision with CosbyRoundtree in practice.
Gillespie did not play in
the exhibition against USC or the private scrimmage against North Carolina last week. However, he insists that he will be ready for the opener, albeit with a mask.
“It’s not something you want, but I’m dealing with it,” Gillespie said of playing with the mask. “I’ll get used to it.”
Wright said the injury may turn out to be a good thing. It forced him to use both Bey and Moore at the point in the exhibition game and scrimmage with UNC. The 6-8 Bey averaged 8.2 points per game as a freshman and was one of 20 players named to the watch list for the Julius Erving Award, which goes to the top small forward in the country.
“I’m excited to give the team whatever they need,” Bey said. “Last year, I had a different role. The roles change every year and I’m willing to do whatever the team needs to be the best team we can be.”
The 6-4 Moore scored 39 points on 9-for-12 shooting in 54 minutes in the UNC scrimmage that included two 20-minute halves and two shorter sessions of six and eight minutes.
“I think it’s good for me personally and the team,” Moore said. “Playing the one fits me, a big point guard, it creates mismatches for me and my teammates so I feel it’s good for me to learn that position.”
One thing the Wildcats do have is size. At 6-3, Gillespie is the shortest player expected to be in the rotation. Antoine and Arcidiacono are listed at 6-5, Samuels and Slater at 6-7, Dixon is 6-8 and Cosby-Roundtree, Swider and Robinson are 6-9.
Gillespie and Samuels were the only Wildcats to play overseas this summer. Robinson-Earl was part of the Team USA squad that won the gold medal at the FIBA U19 World Cup. In 2018 he was on the squad that captured the FIBA Americas U18 title.
“That was a lot of fun and very beneficial because of the physicality of the game,” Robinson-Earl said. “There’s a lot of bigger dudes overseas and some are older and play very physical so I’m going to try to bring that physicality back to here.”
Robinson-Earl had 20 points and nine rebounds in the exhibition against USC, and 16 points and 12 boards in the controlled scrimmage against the Tar Heels. He as well as others from the freshman class will be counted on heavily from the start.
“It really doesn’t matter how ready they are because they’re going to have to be,” Wright said. “Chris and Jeremiah are going to have to help out. If we can get Bryan back, he’s going to help. Eric is a guy, because he’s a big guy, that we need to probably move along a little quicker, but I think they’re all going to help.”