Villanova Learning What Works as Big East Schedule Looms

Through the first ten games of nonconference play, Villanova Men’s Basketball head coach Kevin Willard has emphasized his team’s youth and lack of experience playing together. If you’ve followed the Wildcats (8-2) at anything more than a superficial level, you’ve heard that they have 11 new players on the roster this season, and that of the three players who returned from the 2024-25 campaign, only one played even a minute last year.

Following their 79-61 win over the Pittsburgh Panthers on Saturday, Dec. 13, Willard said that learning to play together means reacting to different styles of play from their opponents as much as it does learning one another’s tendencies.

“We saw a monster drop coverage at Michigan, something that these guys have never seen. They’ve never seen that size,” Willard said. “So to go through that drop and now come in to now, kind of what we’ve seen with a little more switching. So I think [they’re] just getting used to what the defense is giving them. And I think that’s just being a little patient.”

Improving on the Glass

As Willard referenced, Villanova ran into a buzzsaw against No. 2 Michigan, three of whose starters stand 6-foot-9 or higher. Size is a weakness for the Wildcats, who rely on 6-foot-10 forward Duke Brennan almost exclusively in the paint: their other forward options, Matt Hodge (6-foot-8) and Tafara Gapare (6-foot-9) take the majority of their shots from three and average just 3.9 and 3.1 rebounds per game, respectively.

That matchup disadvantage appeared against the Panthers, who outrebounded Villanova 36-20. While the Wildcats aren’t going to hit a growth spurt overnight, Willard said he thinks that he can fine-tune Villanova’s defensive deployment to limit those problems.

“We switch so much on defense, it’s something I’m going to go back, take a look at… make sure that we keep certain guys down low and not get as many mismatches. Maybe that’s hurting us a little bit,” Willard said. “Tough to go small when you’ve got a guy like [Pitt forward Cameron] Corhen out there, a veteran guy that’s big. So I thought they did a good job.”

Learning What Works

Villanova opened another dimension to their offense against Pitt behind a career night from Brennan, who went a perfect 8-of-8 from the field. Willard said that while Villanova uses Brennan for his blue-collar contributions, using terms like energy and rebounding, drawing up scoring plays centered on Brennan will help the Wildcats turn the heat up on their opponents. 

“I think the more we can get Duke involved in pick-and-rolls and get him on rolls, it just puts pressure on the weakside defense,” Willard said.

He went on to say that the young guards that form the engine of Villanova’s offense like Acaden Lewis and Bryce Lindsay — a redshirt sophomore, but one who’s playing in a new system and amidst his first season as a starter — are learning how to make the right plays. 

“Again, when you have young guards and you have a team that hasn’t been together overly long, sometimes it just takes a little time to kind of know what works and doesn’t work. And I think Acaden, Bryce, Dev [Devin Askew] are doing a really good job of just trying to learn what we’re trying to do,” Willard said. “We still need to do a much better job when teams are switching on us, but they’re getting there. I think they’re starting to understand what to look for.”

That’s a marked change from early in the season — after the Wildcats’ win over Queens on Nov. 8, Willard criticized their performance on both sides of the ball — and it’s coming at the perfect time. With just one game left before Big East play begins, Villanova’s trial-and-error period is coming to an end.