Villanova and Seton Hall tip off at the Prudential Center on Wednesday night. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
March 6, 2024
Big5Hoops.com
NEWARK, N.J. – It all comes down to Saturday for Villanova.
The Wildcats have played 72,000 seconds of basketball in a season that started exactly four months ago. They have spent countless hours in the gym practicing, in the weight room lifting, in the film room watching. There have been bus rides and plane rides and walks back to their dorms.
There have been ups (Battle 4 Atlantis) and downs (Big 5). They have been booed in their own gym and faced the wrath of social media. They have been cheered of late, with a resurgence built on defense, rebounding and the return to form of Justin Moore.
Every game for the last month has felt like a must-win, and the Wildcats have been coming through with victory after victory, six of their last eight, in fact, heading into Wednesday night’s important Big East showdown against Seton Hall.
It was the NCAA Bubble Bowl. In Joe Lunardi’s latest bracket on Wednesday, Villanova entered with the final bye into the tournament while Seton Hall was the first team of the Final Four in.
The Wildcats didn’t defend or rebound like they have of late. Didn’t make enough shots when they needed, resulting in a 66-56 loss that, once again put their NCAA tournament hopes on thin ice. Luckily for the Wildcats, they will have another huge chance to impress the committee on Saturday afternoon against No. 10 Creighton at the Wells Fargo Center.
It’s pretty simple, now: Win and the Wildcats likely are in the NCAA tournament field. Lose and they’ll probably need a deep run in the Big East tournament to punch their ticket to the Big Dance.
“Our approach is that this is our Super Bowl,” Wildcats coach Kyle Neptune said. “We’re going to come out and play as hard as we possibly can, and we’re going to lay it all out on the line. By the way, that’s the same thing we were thinking about tonight. Our approach hasn’t changed. We try to have that focus every time we come out, and that’s not going to change.”
Villanova is in another must-win position because the Pirates owned the glass 39-29, including 12 key offensive rebounds.
“We didn’t execute quite right,” said TJ Bamba, who had 11 points. “We have to execute more on the offensive rebounds we allowed. Take this loss, take it with class, go back to the drawing board and try to get better tomorrow.”
The Wildcats got off to a fast start against Seton Hall, jumping to a seven-point lead early and looking good. But the Pirates chipped away at the advantage and went in front 30-24 at the break. Seton Hall’s margin got as high as 13, 50-37, with 9:11 to play on Kadary Richmond’s 3-pointer. To their credit, Villanova ran off 11 of the next 13 to pull with 52-48 on Brendan Hausen’s two free throws with 5:05 left. But the Pirates did the most work down the stretch to pull out a much-needed victory for them.
And send Villanova home thinking about Saturday.
“Same approach as we have every day,” Bamba said. “Our next game is our biggest game of the year. If that means literally coming in on Saturday, then that’s what it means. But that’s been our approach the whole year.”
Asked what they’ll need to do differently, he said, “Rebound more, that’s all I say.”
So, the Wildcats will be playing for their tournament hopes, just as they’ve seemingly been doing for every game over the last five weeks. Pressure? No, it’s a privilege, Bamba said.
“If people are coming to us telling us, ‘We need this, we need this,’” he said. “Yeah, to them it’s pressure, but to us it’s something we’re going to rise to the occasion for because we’re built for it. We can take a step forward come Saturday. It’s another opportunity.”
“We’re not going to do anything different,” said Eric Dixon, who led the Wildcats with 14 points.
For Villanova, that has meant trying to get better each day, each game. The Wildcats have played their best basketball of the season in the last month. They were good in spurts against the Pirates, but not good enough for 40 minutes.
Now, they will get another chance on Saturday.
Forty more minutes. Twenty-four hundred seconds.
And a precious NCAA tournament bid on the line.
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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.