Villanova says it learned from blowout loss to Oklahoma

Jay Wright calls them "teachable moments," mistakes made in games that need to be addressed and corrected at the next practice or two.

However, when Villanova went to Hawaii to help commemorate the anniversary of the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor and got routed by Oklahoma, the Wildcats had "40 minutes worth" of teachable moments, as Josh Hart described it.

"That was a tough one," Hart, the Cats' 6-foot-5 junior swingman, said Monday. "That really wasn't a Villanova basketball team. We weren't out there taking charges, diving on the floor for loose balls, taking care of every possession as focused as we should have been.

"That whole game was filled with teachable moments. They're not teachable moments unless you want them to be. That's something about this team. We want to learn. We want to know what we can get better at. I think we did learn from that game."

The Wildcats (33-5), champions of the NCAA South Regional, get another chance at the Sooners in the national semifinals Saturday night at NRG Stadium in Houston. They took ownership of their 78-55 loss to Oklahoma in Hawaii and used it as a season-long measuring stick on their way to their first Final Four since 2009.

"We're a lot different," senior center Daniel Ochefu said. "We've gotten a lot better. I think the biggest thing is our young guys. They have a whole year of experience under their belt now and it goes a long way. Everybody's on the same page. Definitely, [the loss] is something that we look back on and say we were at this point at the beginning of the season, now we're at this point."

Wright said he knows the Sooners have his team's attention because "they lit us up." And he said the loss, as painful as it was for the Wildcats to reflect on the long flight back to the Philadelphia area, "helped us a lot."

"We have great respect for them," the Villanova coach said. "One of the things that is challenging when you get to this point is you've won four big-time games and you feel really good about yourself. Then you spend a week with everybody telling you how great you are and you think you can beat anybody you play.

"But we're going to play a team that waxed us. So we're not stupid. They're smart guys. I don't think I'm going to have to talk to them."

Of course, Buddy Hield, he of the 25.4-point scoring average, is the key man for Oklahoma. But he had "only" 18 points against 'Nova on 6-of-17 shooting, and his teammates hurt the Cats collectively. Isaiah Cousins scored 19 points including four of the Sooners' 14 three-pointers, and dished 10 assists. Ryan Spangler contributed 11 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

"Basically they all played well except for Buddy," senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono said, "so hopefully we can shut them all down. But we know they're going to make shots and we've got to make sure they're tough, contested shots."

The Wildcats were a woeful 4 of 32 from three-point range in the December game. Arcidiacono made two of them while the rest of the team went 2 of 26. But Villanova certainly is better now and its players carry the confidence of having knocked off No. 1 overall seed Kansas to get to this spot.

So bring on Oklahoma.

"It's good to get another opportunity because we know we weren't that good at the beginning of the season," Arcidiacono said. "We knew we needed to get a lot better. I think we've seen that. They were really good at the beginning of the season and now they're even better. I think it's going to be a great game."

jjuliano@phillynews.com

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