Jerardi: At Villanova, seniors are proven winners
WEDNESDAY NIGHT, Villanova's seniors will play their penultimate home game. Their 123 (and counting) wins over the four seasons are a number that is almost hard to believe.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT, Villanova's seniors will play their penultimate home game. Their 123 (and counting) wins over the four seasons are a number that is almost hard to believe.
If you win so much, you must really hate losing. Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins and Darryl Reynolds have proved just how much they hate losing by never losing two in a row and often burying the teams that beat them when they got a rematch.
They have lost just 15 games. They never got another shot at Connecticut or North Carolina State, the teams that beat them in the NCAA Tournament in the years they did not win the tournament.
Seton Hall knocked them out of the Big East Tournament the two times they did not win the tournament. In fact, Seton Hall also beat the Wildcats in a 2015 regular-season game so the Pirates are the only team to beat the Wildcats three times during this run, all of which could account for 76-46 and 92-70 in the two meetings this season.
Creighton and Doug McDermott beat them by a combined 49 points in two 2014 games. The next meeting, Villanova beat Creighton, 71-50.
Georgetown beat the 'Cats in 2015. Villanova has won the next five meetings by a combined 59 points. Providence beat 'Nova last season. The next three games have gone to Villanova by a total of 29 points. Xavier beat the 'Cats last season. Villanova's 41-point margin over Xavier in two meetings this season is probably not a coincidence.
Marquette beat the 'Cats 74-72 on Jan. 24. I would not like Marquette much against 'Nova in either the Big East Tournament or NCAA Tournament.
The seniors have lost three regular-season non-conference games. They beat Syracuse and Virginia in rematches. And there was the all-time turnaround last season. Oklahoma beat the 'Cats, 78-55, in the regular season. In the best performance I have ever seen against a really good team, Villanova crushed the Sooners, 95-51, in the 2016 Final Four.
Did I mention Butler beat Villanova 66-58 on Jan. 4 in Indianapolis? Did I mention Butler is the opponent Wednesday night?
Villanova numbers
I am forever fascinated by not just all the winning, but how Villanova wins. This season, with the short rotation, coach Jay Wright has his team playing the slowest pace of his tenure, just 65 possessions per game. That is obviously smart, which sums up how these teams have been coached in one word.
The coach and his staff emphasize the strengths of their players so when you have a few defensive issues that were not present last season, why not just hold the ball a little longer on offense and not expose your defense too often. It is hard to play a press too often with so few players. It is harder to protect the basket without Daniel Ochefu.
Offensively, this team is every bit as good as the last two teams. The 'Cats are ranked third in offensive efficiency after being third last season and fourth the season before that. They are second in free-throw accuracy (80.6 percent), third in two-point shooting (59.4 percent) and sixth in overall shooting from the field (49.8 percent).
They don't beat themselves, best explained by just 14.6 personal fouls per game, second nationally. Villanova has made 419 free throws. Its opponents have attempted 350. They have outscored teams from the free throw line by 167 points, the three-point arc by 174, a cool +341 points from the lines.
I am not concerned about the short rotation in the NCAA Tournament because, if you keep winning, it is basically three two-game tournaments with a day between games and six games spread over 19 days, with timeouts that last forever.
It will take three wins in three days to win the Big East Tournament so the rotation could be a factor there. Still, I will believe these players will get tired when they actually do. I haven't seen it yet.
La Salle NIT teams
Fun for me to be at Gola Arena Saturday to see La Salle's 1952 NIT champions and 1987 NIT runner-ups honored. I covered all five of the 1987 teams NIT games, 30 years ago now, my first year covering college basketball.
It was very cool to know that Tom Gola and Lionel Simmons, freshmen on those teams, were exactly 35 years apart. It was nice to see Ed Altieri, Richard Breen and Joe Gilson from the '52 team and Simmons, Bobby Johnson, Rich Tarr, Larry Koretz and Gary Jones as well as coach Speedy Morris from the 1987 team.
If you knew the '87 team played at Villanova (won on a buzzer-beater by Simmons), against Niagara at the old Aud in Buffalo, Illinois State at the Palestra, Arkansas-Little Rock and Southern Mississippi at Madison Square Garden, you get extra credit. No, I did not have to look it up.
That didn't take long
I thought Penn had a chance to catch up in the Ivy League race for fourth even after starting 0-6. I just didn't think the Quakers would be tied for fourth after two perfect weekends.
Penn and Columbia are at 4-6 with four games left, fourth place the goal as that gets a spot in the first Ivy Tournament at the Palestra.
Penn lost to Yale and Brown at the Palestra in the first Ivy weekend of the season. The Quakers beat both convincingly on the road last Friday and Sunday, Brown, 96-72, and Yale, 71-55.
Coach Steve Donahue has settled on a seven-player rotation and they are playing beautiful basketball, making 43 threes and assisting on 77 of 116 baskets during the four-game winning streak.
This and that
No. 1 Gonzaga is third nationally in field-goal shooting (51.4 percent) and second in field-goal defense (37 percent), a killer combination. Yes, some of that is due to lack of competition most games in the West Coast Conference, but it's not like the Bulldogs did not play serious competition in the non-conference.
Notre Dame is first in free- throw shooting (81.6 percent) and second in assist/turnover ratio, 1.68/1. In fact the Irish remind me of Villanova, without the defense, of course. Senior Steve Vasturia (St. Joseph's Prep) is shooting 92 percent from the foul line, fifth nationally.
North Carolina kills teams on the glass, outrebounding them by a nation's best 13.4 per game.
SMU, in its first season without Larry Brown, is playing very much in its former coach's image. SMU outrebounds teams by 10.9 boards per game and is the only team committing fewer fouls than Villanova, just 14.3 per game.
@DickJerardi