Villanova Basketball: Soft Benching for Bryce Lindsay?

During Villanova Men’s Basketball’s 80-69 win over Creighton in Omaha on Saturday, Feb. 14, starting guard Bryce Lindsay played a season-low 14 minutes. He scored two points on 1-of-4 shooting, adding a pair of assists, checking out with 9:27 to play in the second half and never returning.

All but three of Lindsay’s minutes came in the first half, with sixth man Devin Askew (26 minutes) and bench guard Malachi Palmer (21 minutes) eating up much of the rest of Lindsay’s workload. Askew and Palmer played 16 and 12 minutes, respectively, in the second half, while starting guards Acaden Lewis and Tyler Perkins played the full 20 minutes.

Lindsay has struggled through the past 11 games, crossing the ten-point barrier just three times in that span and never scoring more than 11 points. Through the first two months of the season, he ranked at or near the top of the Big East in scoring.

After Villanova’s wins against Georgetown and Marquette, head coach Kevin Willard stated his faith in Lindsay, confirming that he’d keep the redshirt sophomore in the starting lineup.

Kevin Willard’s Vote of Confidence

“I have the utmost, utmost confidence in Bryce. And so he’s gonna get it. It’s just, he went from being a sixth man last year, to our early schedule, him carrying us pretty much, to being at the top of the scouting report. And just getting him to, it’s his first time going through it. So adjusting to this level of coaching, to the physicality,” Willard said after the Georgetown game. “But I have the utmost — I ran a play with five minutes to go in the game for him to get a three.”

After the Marquette win, Willard said that continuing to take shots could help Lindsay snap out of his rut.

“He’s gonna get going. It’s a little mental. I talked to the team earlier, before the game, about staying in the moment, talking to each other, not worrying about the past or not worrying about the future, just trying to stay in the present. And sometimes it’s hard when you’re not playing well to kind of stay in the moment,” Willard said.

“I thought he had some good opportunities tonight. It’s just when you’re struggling the way he’s struggling, sometimes you just need one, get a good bounce or bank one in. I told him to sleep on the other side of the bed tonight, so sometimes you just gotta try something different.”

It made sense for Willard to play Askew and Palmer given Creighton’s reliance on taller guards like Josh Dix (6-foot-6) and Blake Harper (6-foot-7), but Lindsay’s slump has lasted more than one-third of the season… and once the calendar turns to March, trust can only go so far with the season on the line. Lindsay’s minutes continuing to slump — especially if it happens against smaller guards — would indicate a soft benching.