Villanova Basketball: Blowouts over Canisius, Oklahoma State much needed for Wildcats

After some tough losses, it was good to see the Villanova Wildcats bounce back with blowout wins over Canisius and Oklahoma State.

Defending a national championship in college basketball is never an easy task, and the Villanova Wildcats knew it would be even more difficult to do so this year when looking at some of the key players they lost to the NBA.

However, nobody expected the Wildcats to lose the way they did to the Michigan Wolverines and Furman Paladins over the last week or so to knock Jay Wright’s team out of the Top 25.

Despite all of the key losses, Villanova still seemed like a team with the necessary talent to at least make a push for a third title in four years when the time came in the spring, although their losses to Michigan and Furman were a major wake-up call.

As much as the Wildcats want to believe they deserve to be in the conversation of being a top team in the country, they have a long way to go when it comes to proving themselves.

With that being said, Villanova entered the Advocare Invitational looking to take advantage of bouncing back with favorable matchups early on against Canisius and Oklahoma State. While defeating the Golden Griffins by 27 points was sort of expected, it was even better to see the Wildcats defeat a more competitive team in the Cowboys by 19 points on Friday.

After a decent performance during the win over Canisius, Eric Paschall came up big during Friday’s game against Oklahoma State by finishing with 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. Believe it or not, this marked the first time Paschall topped the 20-point mark since Villanova’s opener at the beginning of the month during a win over Morgan State.

Assuming the Wildcats continue to put together a few more impressive wins over the next few weeks, chances are they will eventually move back into the Top 25. And if this does end up happening, Paschall will most likely end up being one of the main reasons as to why.

Without question, the 2018-19 season seems like it’s going to be the best one yet for Paschall, and the Wildcats continue to be beyond thankful for his decision to transfer from Fordham a few years back.

As mentioned before, Villanova realizes the challenge that comes with trying to win their third title in four years when looking at all of the competition standing in their way. But at least with Paschall, the Wildcats will have somewhat of a shot to give them a better chance of this happening.