NEW YORK. N.Y.– Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski finally said what people in the Big East has been thinking for the last few weeks.
“I think Villanova is a team that could win a national championship,” he said. “I think they have all the ingredients. They play like they did tongiht, I don’t know how you beat them.”
This could be the most efficient team Jay Wright has coached since he arrived at Villanova. That is not to say it is the most talented. The 2006 Cats had three pros– Randy Foye, Kyle Lowry and Allan Ray– on a team that advanced to the4 Elite Eight. The 2009 team, which advanced to the Final Four, was better defensively. But this team, which plays old school, unselfish basketball and had 22 assists on 30 field goals, may be his most coachable team. They don’t believe they are as good as they can be and believe Wright can max out their potential.
The balanced, fourth ranked Cats are 30-2 after making a team record 17 threes and devouring Marquette, 86-69, in the Big East quarterfinals Thursday afternoon at the Garden and are surging toward a No. 1 seed, most likely in the West.
We’re a good shooting team,” Wright said. “So when you have have nights like that, you’e going to win most games. But when you’re a shooting team, there’s going to be some nights when you don;t make those shots and you can’t be afraid to let them fly. You’ve got to be able to do other things when you are not making shots.
“that’s why i thought it was so important we hit shots early when Marquette opened in zone. We made three consecutive threes early. I think that set the tone for the games. If you’re playing zone and a team comes out and starts hitting threes like that, it makes it tough Then they had to switch to man to man. And after playing late night, I don’t think they want to be chasing us around man to man.
Villanova has seven players who can make a three in a game and the Cats are a hard guard because they can score from anywhere on the court.
They also have a 6-5 sophomore wing Josh Hart, the Big East sixth man of the Year, who just lights it up in the big arenas. Hart, who is second in the Big East scored 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting in 26 minutes. Hart made five threes and scored 11 straight points at one point as the Cats went on a 17-0.tear to break loose a 18-16 game.
“I just felt confidence,” Hart said. “Darrun (Hilliard) was finding me when I was open. Ryan (Arcidiacono) found me. Kris (Jenkins) found me. And then when those guys just find you when you are wide open, after the first couple, you just get into a rhythm, get a confidence.
“I really wasn’t thinking. I was just shooting.”
Hart is reminiscent of former NBA star and sixth man Vinnie Johnson. “He brings so much to us, just just his shooting, but offensive rebounding, defensive energy, getting steals. He’s an incredible scorer. When it was tight, he made an incredible one on three drive to finish.
“So he’s the perfect sixth man in that he can come in to fill any spot, any position, or any role, whatever you need at the time. You need shooting, youi need defense, you need rebounding.”
Hart also had 3 rebounds, 3 assists and two of his teams 14 steals, doing a good job helping muzzle Marquette guard Matt Carlino. Carlino had eight threes against Seton Hall Wednesday night in the firsts round of the Big East tournament. Less than 24 hours later, he was just 2 for 11 against the Cats’ defense and 1 for 8 from the three.
“He has one of the quickest releases of anybody we’ve played against,” Wright said. “(Bryce) Cotton (from Providence) was like that last year. You can’t let them catch it because, if they catch it, they get it off before you can get to them and they’re great shooters.”
Nova has been playing with so much more energy when they did last year when they lost to the Hall in the quarterfinals of this tournament, then limped to the finish line, losing to eventual national champion UConn in a third round game at Buffalo.”
The Cats, which shot 17 for 29 in the second half and got 13 points, three threes and 8 assists from Hilliard and three more threes from Dylan Ennis, know it will be judged in March again, but this team is gaining confidence and has no fear of the future.
“We just try not to think about what happened last year,” Hart said. “Obviously, that happened. We let the past be the past. We can’t take that back. We just knew we’re going to have to come in and play as hard as we can and let everything else take care of itself.”
