Villanova finally gets a win

IT WAS A 16-point Big East home win in early January, over a team that's now lost 54 of its last 57 since joining the conference.

But when you've lost eight of your last 11, and are 0-3 in the Big East for the first time ever, you're hardly in position to toss anything back.

Especially when next up on the schedule is top-ranked, unbeaten Syracuse at the Wells Fargo Center.

Villanova evened its record at 8-8 yesterday afternoon at the Pavilion by beating DePaul, 87-71. The Blue Demons (10-5, 1-2 Big East) were coming off a home win over Pittsburgh, which is also 0-3 in the league. So, the Wildcats have won 52 of 54 on the Main Line, but one of the losses was Thursday, against South Florida, which isn't the same as opening the Big East season with road blemishes at West Virginia and Marquette.

"Obviously, the understatement of the year, that's a much-needed win for us," said coach Jay Wright. "The thing about the South Florida game is, we were getting better. And we took a step back. We knew maybe we'd knocked ourselves back so much we couldn't respond today. This makes us feel better. But we would have been OK [anyway]."

Still, who wanted to find out?

The Wildcats, who scored the first 10 points, never trailed. The lead was a dozen at the break. After falling behind by 16, the Demons got it back down to eight with a little under 10 minutes remaining. The Wildcats then went on an 8-0 spurt, and the closest it got after that was 11.

It's the most Villanova's scored since getting 106 in the opener against Monmouth.

The three juniors, who are also the Wildcats' three leading scorers, combined for 55 points. Maalik Wayns had 21, Dominic Cheek 20 and Mouphtaou Yarou 14 on 19-for-35 shooting. JayVaughn Pinkston, one of four freshmen who played, added 11 of his 13 points in the second half. Against USF, he had all 12 after intermission. Another first-year guy, Ty Johnson, started and got a career-high 33 minutes. He had five assists and eight of Villanova's 28 turnovers, five off the program record. But for someone who's still getting over an offseason foot injury, it's something. And it gives the 'Cats another ballhandler, never a bad thing. Wayns had six TOs himself, while freshman big man Markus Kennedy finished with seven.

After getting outrebounded by a dozen against USF, they had 45, one shy of doubling the visitor's total. They took only 10 shots from the arc, which for this group might also be good. They attempted twice as many free throws (34), and had 16 more conversions. Kennedy, who only makes 50 percent, had four of their seven misses.

DePaul got 22 from Brandon Young and 19 out of Melvin Cleveland. Jeremiah Kelly, who had 25 in an overtime loss to the Wildcats in February, had six on eight shots, with Wayns doing much of the defending.

"We had two great days of practice, guys felt good about themselves coming into the game and we got it done," said Wayns. "It takes time. We have young guys trying to do things they never did before. It's starting to come around for us. It's not just getting the win, but playing the way we did.

"The type of guys on this team, everything's positive. We weren't looking ahead to Syracuse, or anyone else, or looking at the record. We're trying to get better. The next game is the biggest."

And as Wright correctly pointed out, if they get this many turnovers against the Orange, it could get ugly.

The last time Villanova played a No. 1 here it was Connecticut in February 2006, also in South Philly. They won, 69-64. Those Wildcats made it to the Elite Eight. The last time they met Syracuse when the Orange ruled the polls was 1990, in upstate New York. They also won that one, 93-74. Rollie Massimino was still the coach.

"We love it," Wright acknowledged. "That's the great thing about being in the Big East. You're going to get 1, 2, 3, somebody in there, on your court. It's nice to win this game going into that. Because to play against them you've got to play with confidence. They play with great confidence . . .

"I know our fans are going to say, 'OK, we won this, we're back, we're going to beat Syracuse.' I'm glad. I know they think that way. But I said to the staff [Saturday] night, 'We're 0-3, 7-8, and these guys think we're great.' That's good. It really is. We're on them, but they're not down. That's what they believe. We're trying to teach them there's a lot more to it. It's all dealing with youth. It's fun, and it's [also] frustrating sometimes."

And sometimes, it's a 16-point win that was at least better than the alternative for a change.