VILLANOVA, Pa.—Villanova blew 81-52 by St. Joseph’s at the Finn here Saturday in the renewal of what used to be the Holy War. Recently it has become nothing but a harmless skirmish.
This has become business as usual for the Wildcats, who have won 31 of their last 32 games against city series rivals Temple, Penn, La Salle, and the Hawks. Villanova is ranked sixth in the current AP poll with a 6-2 record, playing the most challenging non- league schedule of the Jay Wright era with games against. UCLA, Tennessee, Purdue, Syracuse and Baylor prior to Christmas. The other four are struggling to stay above .500.
Villanova has trampled La Salle, 72-46, and Penn, 71-56, at the Palestra before blowing by the Hawks. The wins have become so routine, Villanova doesn’t even feature the streak in its release.
The games haven’t been close.
Villanova had La Salle down, 39-9, Penn down 24-9, and St. Joseph’s, 71-36.
“You can watch them on tape,’’ Penn coach Steve Donahue said. “But they are so much better in person.’’
“This is Jay’s most complete team,’’ St. Joe’s coach Billy Lange said. “They may not win a national championship, but they do all the things he wants.
“Villanova were down 28-22 but when you fall behind, it’s hard to come back. We could have played conservative to try to keep it close or just continue to play our game. Does it matter if you lose by 16 or 30?’’
Villanova made it look easy with this team of upperclassmen that includes fifth year pre-season All- America guard Colin Gillespie and fifth year forward Jermaine Samuels, senior forward Brandon Slater, junior guard Justin Moore and 6-8 sophomore center Eric Dixon is what is basically a six- man rotation. They are a rim protector away from another Final Four appearance.
Moore, who had been in a two- game shooting slump, came out of his coma in the second half against St. Joseph’s, scoring all 16 of his points. More importantly, he shut down St. Joseph’s best perimeter shooter 6-8 Taylor Funk, who got just six shots and did not score. The Hawks, who play an NBA style without enough shooters, shot just 7 for 31 from beyond the arc while allowing the Cats to make 13 for 25.
Wright was diplomatic as usual about this Philadelphia tradition. “We’ve had games against city teams where one or two mistakes can change the outcome,’’ he said. “It got us in 2018 against Penn. And Tuesday, when Penn cut it to six, seven with their crowd behind them, there was some concern. These teams are well-coached, and they all can all play. It’s something you need to protect against.’’
I’m worried about my beloved Big 5.
When the Big 5 was at the height of its power during the golden era between 1962 and 1972, each school had its moment and the Big 5 was winning big with great coaching from Hall of Famers Dr. Jack Ramsay of St. Joseph’s, Harry Litwack of Temple and Jack Kraft of Villanova, Jack and local area stars like Wally Jones, Matty Goukas Jr., Billy Melchionni, Mike Hauer, Larry Cannon, John Baum, Bobby Morse, Chris Ford, Tom Ingelsby, and Mike Bantom who paired with national recruits and future NBA/ABA players like Ken Durrett, Howard Porter, Corky Calhoun, Phil Hankinson, Bernie Williams and Dave Wohl to city college teams a unique image in the pre-ESPN, Big East and travel team era.
Villanova advanced to the national championship game in 1971. Penn won four Ivy League titles and was 28-0 and ranked third in country in 1971 before losing to Villanova in the Final Eight. La Salle was 23-1 and ranked third in 1969. St. Joseph’s got to a Final Four in 1962. Temple who the NIT in 1969, beating a Bob Cousy coached Boston College team when the post season tournament meant something in the pre-ESPN, travel team days.
But times have changed over the last seven years. The three newest coaches—Ashley Howard of La Salle, Lange and Aaron McKie of Temple – all have losing career records at their current schools. Temple is 5-3, St. Joseph’s is 4-4, La Salle is 3-4 and Penn is 3-8. But other than St. Joseph’s win over Georgetown in a consolation game at the Wooden Classic in Los Angeles, there are not quality wins. And attendance is slipping badly at home games or rare neutral site games at the Palestra, like Villanova-LaSalle, which drew only 5, 400 on a Sunday night.
Other than Villanova, the best players in the area have all but abandoned the city schools. St. Joseph’s has one star in 6-6 guard Jordan Hall from St. Maria-Goretti, but local travel team coaches aren’t exactly directing their best players to the La Salle, Temple, Penn and St. Joseph’s the way Catholic League coaches like Speedy Morris of Roman Catholic used to when he coached Bantom and Jimmy O’Brien. It probably hasn’t helped that La Salle and Temple have inner city campuses in areas that have been riddled by gun violence.
Villanova dominates the headlines in the local papers, which no longer cover road games and, other than hard working Mike Jensen and Joe Juliano of the Inquirer, local college basketball and Big 5 coverage in particular is rapidly disappearing as newspapers lose space and bodies.
The one team that gets the lions’ share of what’s left of the media coverage is Villanova, which continues to separate itself from the pack.
