Save for a few hiccups and misfires on the recruiting trail, Jay Wright has kept Villanova in tournament contention throughout his entire 14-year coaching tenure with the team, a track record matched by few. Many remember his success from the tenacious four-guard lineups in 2005 and 2006 or the Scottie Reynolds-led final four team in 2009, and while recent years have been filled with early tournament departures, the Wildcats have continually remained in the picture. His success can be attributed to a number of factors, but above all its his adaptation to changing personnel. While the team has made the NCAA tournament in nine of the previous 10 seasons, the playing style has been remarkably different. Wright has transitioned the team from a fast-paced drive and dish offense centered around guard play and outscoring opponents to one centered around team defense and a balanced, unselfish scoring attack. For the past several seasons, Villanova has not had what NBA scouts would categorize as a star player. There are no one-and-done’s, no lottery pick athletes. Instead, Wright has recruited a group of hard working four-year players who bring a variety of skillsets and offer multi-positional diversity. What this does is build a brand of basketball built around teamwork, help defense and selflessness, and its success can be seen through the Wildcats’ play over the last two games at the Legends Classic.

JayVaughn Pinkston Came Up With the Defensive Play of the Year in CBB (USA Today Images)

Despite struggling against the likes of Lehigh and Bucknell, everything seems to have clicked on Monday night when Villanova took on VCU and the HAVOC defense that has make Shaka Smart famous. But when reviewing the box score, there isn’t a single player that can be pointed to for the reason behind the team’s 24 point rout of VCU. Villanova as a team dished out 20 assists on 29 made baskets and committed just nine turnovers in the process, against a team that had forced a remarkable 60 turnovers in the three contests before it. Four players scored in double figures and the team’s leading scorer is averaging 12.5 points, accounting for a mere 16.2% of the team’s total scoring output. The balanced offense is complemented with a balanced defense. The Wildcats are not particularly quick, or tall, but the team has a number of interchangeable parts, allowing them to effectively switch on ball screens or play help defense in the lanes.

To emphasize just one player on the team would be missing the point, and perhaps that’s the mistake both VCU and Michigan made as they attempted to hone in on Darrun Hilliard‘s shooting or JayVaughn Pinkston’s post scoring. Of the eight Villanova players receiving significant minutes, seven have three-point shooting range and any one of them has shown the ability to lead the team in scoring on any given night. On Monday, Villanova dismantled VCU with long passes to break the press and length on the wings to disrupt their perimeter shooting. And again on Tuesday, versus a Michigan squad with NBA talent in Caris LeVert and Zak Irvin, Villanova proved that teamwork wins games. Five separate players scored eight points or more, with Ryan Arcidiacono and Dylan Ennis adding an outside dimension to the inside game of Pinkston and Daniel Ochefu. While the offense was not clicking whatsoever, the team forced turnovers and contested the open threes that Michigan typically thrives on. College basketball’s fifth most efficient offense was held to 55 points on 6-of-21 three-point shooting, a team that averaged 77.5 points and shot at a 40.0% clip from deep before Tuesday’s game. Despite blowing a 13 point lead in the second half, the Wildcats rallied behind their defense, getting crucial stops including a highlight reel block by JayVaughn Pinkston to save the team’s lead in the final seconds. “We got a lot of work to do offensively… we can do that though. But I like where our defense has gotten to at this point in the year, I really feel good about that” Wright said after the game. It certainly wasn’t the prettiest of games from an offensive standpoint, but the Wildcats came up with big plays on the defensive end when it mattered most. Ennis and Pinkston said Jay Wright repeatedly emphasized a defensive mindset in practice, and on Tuesday, it showed. The team motto stands truer than ever.

“Just focus on defense. Everything else will come.”

Justin Kundrat (175 Posts)

Villanova grad, patiently waiting another 10 years for season tickets. Follow Justin on twitter @JustinKundrat or email him at justin.kundrat@gmail.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2014 at 2:15 pm by Justin Kundrat and is filed under big east, microsites. Tagged: big east, Daniel Ochefu, feature, Jayvaughn Pinkston, villanova. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.