For the favorites, Hart and mind in the right place
SOPHOMORE guard Josh Hart isn’t concerned about not being a starter for Villanova . He’s more interested in being an influencer. He was just that Thursday at the Garden in leading the Wildcats to an 8449 victory over Marquette in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.
The final margin suggests it was an easy afternoon for the Wildcats, fourthranked in the nation and the top seed in the Big East Tournament. It was easy after Hart came off the bench for the second time to spark a 170 run that blew the game open.
Hart scored the first 11 points in the run, including three 3pointers. He ended with a gamehigh 20 points on 7of10 shooting.
“You just get in a rhythm,” he said. “You get confidence and my teammates did a great job of finding me. I really wasn’t thinking. I was just shooting.”
Marquette (1319, 414) tried to play spoiler, rebounding from an early 132 deficit to close to 1816 after a layup by Steve Taylor Jr. That’s when Villanova coach Jay Wright took a timeout and put the 6foot5 Hart into the game along with Ryan Arcidiacono.
“When I go in I need to give us spark,” Hart said. “I didn’t know if it was going to be offensively. I didn’t know if it was going to be defensively. I knew I needed to do something to give this team some energy and help this team win. ”
He was instant offense. He made a 3pointer off an offensive rebound then swished another 3pointer after a Marquette turnover. On Villanova’s next possession, he converted a layup before dropping another 3pointer to make it 2916. It finished Marquette, which had beaten Seton Hall, 7856, on Wednesday night.
“Josh brings so much to us, not just his shooting, but offensive rebounds, de fensive energy, getting steals in transition,” Wright said. “He’s the perfect sixth man in that he can come in to fill any spot, any position, or any role, whatever you need at the time.”
The Wildcats tied a Big East Tournament record making 17 (of 29) 3pointers and also shared 22 assists. Their 3point shooting burned Marquette’s zone defense early and ruined any repeat of last year, when Villanova lost 6463 Seton Hall in the quarterfinals after going 283 during the regular season.
“It was a huge learning experience,” Hart said of losing to the Pirates last year. “We went through the whole season ranked and there was a lot of talk about being a No. 1 seed [in the NCAA Tournament]. Obviously we tried not to focus on it, but it was around the program a lot. It was something new to us, something we had to go through to learn how to get a handle on things. This year we know what mistakes not to make and how to go about things the right way. It’s was monumental in the success of this team.”
Villanova has won 13 straight games as it heads to the Big East semifinals for the first time since 2009. At 302, the Wildcats have matched the 30 wins they achieved in reaching the Final Four in 200809. There’s talk again about being a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs, but Villanova has learned not to look past the next game.
“You just keep getting better every day,” Hart said. “Obviously you’re going to have your good and bad days. But if we practice and play as hard as we can and do everything else, no matter what the outcome of the game is, we’re going to be able to look at each other in the locker room and know we did everything we could to help our brother next to us.”
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