Villanova Basketball: Wildcats look a bit rusty against Columbia

To kickoff the 2017-18 season, Villanova came through with the 75-60 win over Columbia.

Jalen Brunson hit his first shot of the new Villanova basketball season, an 18-foot jumper from left of the key. Seeming moments later, his Wildcats had a 7-0 lead on the Columbia Lions, and a fireworks show suddenly seemed underway.

However, fans then had to be satisfied with the next seven skyrockets being duds except for the one that skittered across the grass and set a doghouse on fire.

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Playing three freshmen for significant amounts of time, moving Eric Paschall firmly into a low-post frame of mind, and generally shaking off rust, Villanova struggled on Friday. Columbia dogged them seriously for 18+ minutes.

Early on, the Lions were led by 5-foot-11 guard Mike Smith, who kept driving by nobody very nearby for layups.

Just past seven minutes into the game, the contest was tied 9-9. About a minute later, freshman Collin Gillespie hit the first three of his college career, but with 11 minutes left in the half, the Wildcats had hit only four of their first 14 shots from the field.

Perhaps the tide began to turn in Nova’s favor shortly after the 12-12 tie about halfway through the first half. Smith was flying back up court to join the other Lions on defense when Brunson, who had the ball ahead of him, turned his backside into the smaller guard, knocking him to the floor – where Smith was called for the foul. Brunson had either sensed the opponent behind him or seen him peripherally, and while his move was fairly obvious, the referee saw a player fouled from behind. Brunson went to the line for the ‘Cats’ first one and one bonus.

Nova slowly built an 11-4 shooting advantage for the last eight minutes of the half with Phil Booth hitting a three-point shot with 1:40 to go for a nine-point advantage the Main Line squad carried into the break.

At halftime, veteran Fox commentator Bill Raftery, a former LaSalle guard and Seton Hall coach, mimicked a frustrated opponent faced with Villanova’s shape-shifting defense: “What are they playing?!” Jay Wright’s squad was shifting seamlessly from a zone to man-to-man to who knows what – maybe a three-two there for five seconds?

After the Break

Booth hit another three-pointer 17 seconds into the second half. After a Lions miss, Villanova put on one of their patented perimeter eight-pass exhibitions, which ended in a Columbia foul on a Paschall drive to the rim. He hit both foul shots, Nova was up 37-23, and they never looked back – sort of.

Columbia proved scrappy to the end and showed some talent beyond Smith (guard Kyle Castlin and forward Patrick Tape’). Nova’s lead had stalled at 14 until the scoreboard read 47-33, and at game’s end the 25-point-underdog Lions lost only 75-60. Smith led all scorers with 19 points, but on 7 for 21 shooting.

The Wildcats simply shot better in the second half than in the first (44.4 percent to 35.5 percent) and never really relented on defense. Columbia, however, outshot them from the field overall (41.8 percent to 40.3 percent).

Next: Villanova Wildcats Basketball: 2017-18 season perview

Paschall led all Nova scorers with 15 points, and seemed to put away any thought besides charging aggressively to the rim. Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, and Omari Spellman all booked more than 10 points, but the team as a whole shot a semi-miserable 7 for 32 from beyond the arc. Two of those, however, were by Gillespie, who also showed that he already gets the “extra pass” Wright teaches on offense.

Villanova needs a little more sanding and Rustoleum to be applied, but the Wildcats should be fine moving forward.