Villanova emerges from early-season matchup in midseason form
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Sprinkled throughout college basketball's non-conference season are its hidden treats. They're mixed in with duds and blowouts, and sometimes they nearly fall through the cracks.
They might feign to be lopsided games, with the younger, more inexperienced team going through nearly a 10-minute scoring drought and showing little sign of life. And maybe there's a light switch flipped, and both teams start knocking down tough shots. And one side then starts taking charges at pivotal moments. And the other starts swatting away shots, shifting momentum with each block.
All of a sudden, the lead's changed six times in the final three minutes, and the final buzzer sounds, and Villanova-Michigan is the most thrilling game of the young season — and perhaps the best prism to fully see both teams for what they are.
Michigan is young, with brilliant upside and a dynamic guard in Caris Levert. The Wolverines are a team that suffered a painful loss in a raucous environment and plan to learn from it, as they reload while staying nationally relevant, as is now custom.
But the 11th-ranked Wildcats are the ones who walked away from Barclays Center winners, 60-55, thanks to JayVaughn Pinkston and a blocked shot so unbelievable he couldn't quite wrap his mind around the fact he'd messed up defending the inbounds play at first. He, and his coach Jay Wright, laughed about that afterward. Pinkston, a 6-7 senior who grew up in this very borough, also accounted for the eventual winning basket.
But the best news for Villanova — and the reason these Wildcats are the runaway favorite to win the Big East — is that this team is more than just Pinkston. It's Dylan Ennis, a much-improved and ultra-aggressive version of himself from last season, who scored 15 points Tuesday night and had a highlight-worthy block of his own in the first half. It's Ryan Arcidiacono, the Cats' do-everything point guard who, unsurprisingly, wasn't afraid to knock over teammates and dive over the bench after a loose ball. It's also Daniel Ochefu in the paint, Josh Hart off the bench … it's everyone.
In fact, it's basically everyone back from a team that went 28-3 in the 2013-14 regular season, won the Big East and fell to eventual national champion Connecticut in the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament.
Does Villanova have the pieces to win the Big East again — and perhaps make an even deeper run this coming March?
"I think so," Pinkston said late Tuesday night.
Villanova likes to talk about Villanova players, who play Villanova defense. Ennis pointed out multiple times Tuesday night that his defensive efforts led to offensive opportunities. Even Michigan coach John Beilein was effusive in his praise for both the Wildcats' defense and its extremely balanced offensive attack.
"Watching them play VCU (on Monday), they were playing, like, Michigan basketball," Beilein said. "They're hitting the open man, they've got the extra pass that leads to the basket. Really good experienced players, with great balance. They play the way we want to play. … Very unselfish, have a post game, have a great point guard and good wings.
"They have the pieces in place here to be a really, really good team."
Beilein means beyond the Big East. This is a Villanova team that's the overwhelming favorite to win its league, a conference that's now 36-2 vs. everybody else in non-conference play.
If all of this — the defense, the balanced scoring attack, winning a whirlwind of a game like this in November — doesn't spell optimism around this Wildcat program this season, what does?
"Last year, we kind of snuck up on some people at this time," Wright said. "This year, we can tell by the way these teams play that we're not sneaking up on anybody. It's a new challenge for us this year. I'm really not concerned about having the same record as last year. I'd be shocked if we did.
"But I still think we might be a better team."