Poor Shooting, Size Mismatch Sink Villanova Against Hoyas

When Villanova head coach Kevin Willard’s players go down with injuries he reduces the intensity of his practice regimen, doing what he can to make sure he doesn’t end up even more shorthanded. While that might prevent the injury situation from spiraling, it also leaves his players without the full level of intensity they need to prepare for the physicality of Division I basketball.

Willard discussed the conundrum as the Wildcats dealt with injuries early in the season. After their loss to No. 11 seed Georgetown in the quarterfinal round of the Big East Tournament, he mentioned how it applied to the loss of Matt Hodge, who went down with an ACL tear on Feb. 28.

“We haven’t had much practice time because since Matty’s gone down, we’ve been very delicate in practice,” Willard said. “So I think that was one of the issues we had with the offensive end is we just haven’t been able to practice as good as we’ve been able to practice all year.”

Willard complimented 6-foot-6 wing Malachi Palmer for how he’s taken to playing the four in Hodge’s absence, but said Villanova doesn’t have a next man up after Palmer. Guard Tyler Perkins provides a strong presence on both ends of the court and can hold his own as a rebounder, but at 6-foot-4 there’s only so much he can do against opposing centers and power forwards.

“I think Malachi’s done a really good job stepping in for Matt. Where we struggle is when Malachi comes out of the game,” Willard said. “So that’s something that I have a couple days where I got to try to figure out where — what we’re doing when Perk’s at the 4.”

Georgetown Cleans Up

Villanova took a 27-18 lead just over 13 minutes into the game, forcing ten turnovers in that span and creating 16 points off those plays. From there, the Hoyas coughed the ball up just four times the rest of the way. Georgetown senior Jeremiah Williams joked that a stern message from his coaching staff helped them clean up their play.

“There was a lot of yelling at us. No. It was very uncharacteristic of us to turn the ball over that much. Maybe we just had some miscommunications. They do a great job at pulling in on defense and executing their defense,” Williams said. “So we just had to settle in, settle down, and that was a big focal point in the second half, and adjustments, just make sure we get a shot up every time. We were doing a good job rebounding the ball, and our only miscues were just giving them the ball and not getting a shot up.”

The Wildcats’ shooting began to slump at the same time, and Willard said he thought their struggles compounded.

“Yeah, I thought a little bit of our offense late in the second half, late in the first half dictated a little bit of our defense,” Willard said. “And that was probably the first time all year that our offense kind of shifted to our defense instead of the other way around.”

Villanova’s Youth Struggles

Williams said the Hoyas also buckled down on Villanova freshman Acaden Lewis, who gashed them for 26 points and six assists the last time they faced off. He made just two of nine shots on Thursday night.

“Big credit to the scout. We paid a lot of attention to him due to our last matchup. He was a very big focal point of our scout,” Williams said. “He’s a great player, and like coach said, Isaiah [Abraham] did a great job with his energy, effort, his length, and getting over those screens. He’s a great player and we wanted to neutralize him as best as we could.” 

Willard credited Georgetown’s drop coverage, a defensive strategy that forces opposing teams to make their mid-range and three-point shots. Villanova made just 38 percent of shots from the field, nowhere near enough to keep the Hoyas honest.

He also said that it’s on him to make sure Villanova’s offense doesn’t get stuck in neutral as his players learn how to adjust to the lack of space they’d normally have with the 6-foot-8 Hodge opening up space from the perimeter. 

“I got to help the young guys out a little bit in these games. We struggled a little bit to run offense when Malachi wasn’t in there and we kind of got stuck going a little bit one-on-one,” Willard said. “I got to help them a little bit with not being able to put them in that situation so much. And it was just unfortunate, with Malachi going out and Perk in there, we just, we kind of get stuck with a very simplistic offense where with Malachi and Matt we were able to do a lot more.”