Veteran leadership has Villanova on right path
Finals are over and the nonconference schedule is complete. Now Villanova can concentrate on the 20-game gauntlet that is the Big East.
That’s going to be the true test of whether or not the Wildcats are worthy of the NCAA tournament, something Villanova has not missed since 2012.
The league schedule makers didn’t do Villanova any favors, pitting the Wildcats against a red-hot St. John’s squad, No. 2 Connecticut and No. 24 Marquette to get conference play started. At least the games against the Red Storm and Golden Eagles are at home.
Since every game is a test, the Wildcats passed the first one with flying colors, with a 78-63 victory over the Red Storm at the Pavilion Wednesday night.
It wasn’t pretty. Games against St. John’s never are because of the style the Red Storm likes to play. They want to make the game chaotic with pressure defense and an up-tempo offense. And early on, the Red Storm dictated the tempo and opened up a 29-18 lead with 6:16 left in the first half.
But as they have done ever since the calendar changed from November to December, the Wildcats did not panic. They maintained their cool under St. John’s relentless pressure.
“I was really proud of our guys’ poise, especially the back half of the first half and into the second half,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said.
Poise is a Villanova trademark and it’s been on display of the past three weeks as the Wildcats have put together a fivegame winning streak to offset a 2-5 start, the worst in 30 years. So what has changed in that short span?
Nothing, redshirt junior Eric Dixon said.
“We just come in every day with a growth mindset,” Dixon said. “We all believe in each other. We’ve never given up on each other. We’ve never had a doubt that we could be a good basketball team and we still have a ways to go.”
There’s no question the Wildcats are a better team than the one that ended November three games under .500.
Cam Whitmore’s return from the injured list certainly helped. He missed the first seven games with a broken thumb. Moving freshman Mark Armstrong into the starting lineup and bringing sophomore Jordan Longino off the bench has made a difference, too. Longino has a year under his belt and having a player with some experience coming off the bench is better than relying on all freshmen in a reserve role.
But it has been the steady play of the upperclassmen, Caleb Daniels, Brandon Slater, Eric Dixon and Chris Arcidiacono that has allowed the Wildcats to turn things around.
That’s the way it is at Villanova. Upperclassmen lead the way. That hasn’t changed under Neptune, which isn’t a surprise since much of what he learned about the coaching profession came at Jay Wright’s side.
Arcidiacono came up huge down the stretch in Villanova’s win over Saint Joe’s
last Saturday, and was solid against the Red Storm. He had five assists and just one turnover in 31 minutes against the Red Storm’s pressure.
Dixon and Slater have been big in the past two games, too. Dixon followed up a 16-point, 12-rebound effort against the Hawks with 18 points, six boards, two assists and a blocked shot against the Red Storm.
Slater, meanwhile, appears to have found his offensive rhythm. He finished with 16 points. That came on the heels of a season-high 19 point effort against Saint Joe’s.
While their offensive production has been solid, it’s on the defensive end where the Wildcats have made the most improvement. Teams were scoring 71 points per game and shooting 45.5 percent overall and 37.9 percent from
3-point range after seven games. The Wildcats have cut those numbers to 67.1, 43.3 and 34.9 in just five games.
Again, that comes from the upperclassmen showing the younger guys the way it’s done and that’s what Daniels, Slater, Dixon and Arcidiacono have been doing like those who came before them.
The Wildcats have a long way to go before you can start talking about whether or not they have what it takes to be an NCAA tournament team, but the upperclassman are making sure the team is headed in the right direction.
“Veteran leadership is always the best way to go,” Neptune said. “Thank God we’ve got those guys.”