PITTSBURGH– Villanova coach Jay Wright said the most important thing he had to accomplish this week was to bring the Cats back to earth after the high of winning the Big East Tournament with three close games at a rocking Garden.
It’s hard enough to prepare for an NCAA Tournament first round game that with all the distractions that accompany that
But there is also a hangover effect that has haunted Big East teams that have just gone through arduous three- and four- day odysseys. in the past.
And then there was the disturbing fact that 15th seed St. Peter’s had already stunned second seed Kentucky the day before.
It took Villanova almost a half of to get re-focused on the task at hand. Once they did, the second seeded Cats were hard to stop, defeating 15th seed tristate rival Delaware, 80-60, in a South Region first- round game here yesterday.
“I was really concerned about that,” Wright said. “It’s been something that when i saw Marquette play North Carolina, they kind of looked tired. I thought Connecticut’s loss to New Mexico State, they kind of looked like that to me a little bit.
“They just looked worn down, you know. We took a lot of time off, we talked about it.
And we did a pretty good job. We came out of it pretty good. I thought we looked fresh. I thought we were excited to play. It’s just that the other team seems so much more excited than you do. And I didn’t think it looked the way today. I was proud of our guys for that. That’s a tough hurdle to overcome. And it only takes just the first game. Once you get through the first game, you’ve good.”
The Cats had too much firepower for the Blue Hens. Guard Justin Moore scored 21 points. Forward Jermaine Samuels had 13 and Nova put five players in double figures, shooting 50 percent and making 13 of 28 three- point attempts
against a team that started fast but fell behind by 10 at half and only made 3 of 20 three pointers.
“We knew a lot about Delaware because we followed them, and they are really well coached,” Wright admitted.
The Blue Hens are coached by Martin Ingelsby, whose father Tom was a star on Villanova’s 1971 Final Four team. The star of this team, Jameer Nelson, Jr., is the son of national Player of the Year Jameer Nelson Sr. who played for St. Joseph’s 2004 Elite Eight team. And both of Delaware’s big men, 6-9 sophomore Andrew Carr and 6-9 senior Dylan Paynter have local ties. Carr is from West Chester, Pa. and Paynter started his career at Villanova, who were was plenty of motivation.
“At the start of the game, it took us some time to just adjust to their speed and their intelligence offensively, trying to figure out what they were doing,” Wright said. “We knew what they were doing, we just couldn’t guard it. And then I thought even their defense was very intelligent too. Took us some time to figure it out. i think our guys did. And I think that was the difference.”
The one thing that has separated Villanova from the rest of the Big East over the year has been a consistent flow of energy. Villanova constantly goes after loose balls and their effort led to an accident at the end of the game with Villanova up 19 when Samuels dove for a loose ball and nailed assistant Dwayne Anderson with an elbow to the face.
“i knew the ball was coming out of bounds and I was trying to jump out of his way, but he was trying to catch me. And I guess he moved his head towards my elbow,” Samuels said. “But it was an accident. And it just shows how much he loves me by trying to catch me. But sorry it happened.”
Samuels could have just let the ball go out of bounds. “No, that’s not what we do at Villanova,” he said. “We’re going to play a full 40 here no matter what’s going on around us.”
Wright had mixed emotions about the collision. Tell you what, Dwayne Anderson would have gotten really mad if he didn’t go after that loose ball,” Wright said. “That’s why he went after it. i’d also like to say Dwayne has played for us and got hurt and never even came out of a game. Now, he’s a coach and leaves the bench and gets hit like that.”
Villanova advances to a second- round matchup against Big Ten opponent Ohio State– a team that blistered the Cats i Columbus back in 2019– Sunday.
