January 14, 2016
The recent early NCAA tournament exits tend to overshadow everything else, but the 2015-16 Villanova Wildcats are continuing a pretty absurd run of success. On Wednesday night, they improved to 15-2 (5-0 in the Big East) with a ho-hum 83-68 victory over a decent 12-5 Marquette team.
Villanova’s record over the last three seasons (including postseason) is 77-10, good for 0.89 winning percentage. Here are some other fun facts from that span:
• The Wildcats haven’t lost a game at home since Doug McDermott and Ethan Wragge shot the lights out for Creighton at the Wells Fargo Center on January 20th, 2014. They haven’t lost at The Pavilion since February 3rd, 2013. That’s 36 straight wins.
• Their final KenPom rankings: 14th in 2014, 6th in 2015, and the Wildcats are currently rated number one in the nation by Pomeroy’s metrics. Yup, they’re looking down at Kansas, Michigan State, and everyone else. A well-rounded team, Villanova sits in the top eleven nationally in both adjusted offense and defense.
• Including last year’s Big East Tournament, they have won 20 straight in the conference since getting blown out at Georgetown almost a year ago to the date. That just so happens to be the Wildcats’ next game, Saturday at 1:00.
The tourney will be their ultimate proving ground, but it’s pretty clear that the Wildcats are good. The question is why they’re so good.
I mean, Wright obviously has recruited a really talented roster. The Wildcats played something like a B-/C+ game against Marquette and still won easily. Kris Jenkins, a three-point bomber who has struggled with his shot this season, broke out with 20 points on 6-12 shooting. On this team, anybody can truly beat you.
It’s not just that the Wildcats are deep, though. Looking at their players’ ages, the current eight-man rotation is built for continual success: Two seniors, three juniors, one sophomore, and two freshmen. Wright has been really smart about how he has built his roster, and others are taking notice.
This year, Ryan Arcidiacono and Josh Hart are the upperclassmen in the backcourt while Daniel Ochefu (who has ridiculous rebounding numbers, by the way) is the senior big man.
“Those kids are veteran really good players and they allow their younger players to grow at a rate they’re capable of,” Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski said after getting T’d up during the game (the floor slapping days are over, I guess).
“So a [Jalen] Brunson or Phil Booth who is a younger player but really talented, he’s got a big brother and they allow them to grow. I have a lot of admiration for their older kids, and obviously this is a terrific basketball team. We can learn a lot from a game like this.”
Unless Hart declares for the NBA Draft, he will take Arch’s spot as leader in 2016 while Brunson and Booth will both move up the ladder. So will Jenkins and promising redshirt freshman Mikal Bridges, while center Darryl Reynolds will take over for Ochefu. And there is more talent on the way, especially in 6’9” forward Omari Spellman, the 16th-ranked player in the 2016 class according to ESPN.
In the age of one-and-dones, it's hard to build this type of continuity. It's even harder to build this type of continuity as an elite national team.
Brunson, another major recruit, says that his biggest adjustment to the college game has been learning to play with other great players. The freshman point guard is playing within himself and putting up an efficient 10-3-2 line, and Wright believes he will be one of the next great ‘Nova guards.
“He reminds me of Arch in that he was groomed as a Villanova guard,” Wright said. “His parents weren’t Villanovans, but they have this exact same mentality. He was groomed to play hard, be coachable, be a good student. He just fit in perfectly.”
And because of the way Wright has set up the roster, Brunson is also being groomed by Arcidiacono. He’ll be on the other end of the equation sooner or later.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
