Villanova players and staff huddle during the first half of Wednesday's game against DePaul. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
March 13, 2024
Big5Hoops.com
NEW YORK – Maybe you were a little delirious from a long day of hoops that started with a 5:45 a.m. wakeup call and would end with a return home about 20 hours later. So, maybe what you thought you were seeing in the first half of Wednesday night’s Big East matchup between Villanova and DePaul wasn’t really happening.
Let’s rewind.
First, you took the train from Hamilton to Penn Station. Then, the subway to Barclays Center, arriving well before the 11:30 a.m. tipoff for the Atlantic 10 second-round matchup between ninth-seeded Saint Joseph’s and No. 8 George Mason.
After the Hawks’ impressive win, you wrote a column about St. Joe’s. Frankly, I don’t remember much of what I said, other than that Hawks won. Yeah, it’s been a little while and a lot of words since then.
Anyway, I stopped between games for a great meal and better company, with Jeff Neiburg and Lochlahn March of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Glen Papazian of Philly College Sports and Jake Copestick of Big 5 Podcast.
Then, I watched undersized La Salle, the No. 10 seed, play with heart and toughness in a close loss to No. 7 St. Bonaventure in an A-10 second-round game that tipped around 5 p.m. Following the press conferences, Papazian, Copestick and I hopped a subway ride to Madison Square Garden for Villanova’s first-round matchup against DePaul.
Before getting courtside, I wrote the La Salle column.
So, yeah, it had been a long day. A lot of words typed, between columns and social media. So, maybe I was a bit loopy at what I was watching in the opening 20 minutes.
Every time I cleared my eyes, though, I kept seeing DePaul hanging with Villanova in the first half. The Blue Demons even took the lead late in the first half. Shaking off the cobwebs didn’t change that. Eventually, Jordan Longino hit a pair of late 3-pointers to help the Wildcats take a 27-25 lead into halftime.
It was a really poor half of basketball from the Wildcats. And strange, considering Villanova pummeled DePaul 84-48 and 94-69 in the two previous meetings this season. The Blue Demons fired their head coach and finished 0-20 in the Big East and 3-28 overall.
Yet somehow, they were right there with Villanova at halftime.
And it continued from there. DePaul’s lead reached as high as eight, 40-32, with 12:57 remaining.
Sure, Villanova pulled it out in the end, winning 58-57 on Justin Moore’s game-saving, go-ahead 3-pointer with 8 seconds left, but this is not the kind of momentum, you’d think, the Wildcats want to take into Thursday night’s quarterfinal matchup against third-seeded Marquette. A victory in that game is a must for Villanova for any chance of an NCAA tournament at-large bid.
For the Wildcats’ sake, they have to hope that the NCAA Selection Committee did not have the same hoops agenda as me on Wednesday, and did not tune into the Big East tournament’s late game.
Whether they did or not, one thing is certain: Villanova is going to have to play better — much, much, much, much better — against Marquette.
I’ll be there on Thursday night. It will be another long day, with St. Joe’s quarterfinal game against top-seeded Richmond again scheduled for 11:30 a.m. But I’ll have time to rest in between, something not afforded on Wednesday.
Before then, I’ll get some rest tonight, hopefully on the train and then once home. It will give me time to shake off any cobwebs.
And, based on what I think I saw from the Wildcats on Wednesday night, I won’t be the only one doing that.
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. His byline regularly appears on Associated Press stories. Big5Hoops.com is his second website dedicated to Philadelphia college basketball. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages.