Jay Wright happy to resume competition with a victory, but knows Villanova has much work to do

Jay Wright said he had no expectations of how Villanova’s first game in 27 days would turn out or how his players would handle finally competing against another team, especially one of the Wildcats’ fiercest Big East rivals in Seton Hall.

It came out as a win and a close one, 76-74, for the third-ranked Cats on Tuesday night at empty Finneran Pavilion. If you’re not a Villanova fan, you might have had an issue that a foul was called on a wild scramble for a rebound in the final five seconds, a whistle that led to the game-winning free throw by Cole Swider with 1.9 on the clock.

While he was “happy for our guys” and marveled at the performance of Jermaine Samuels, who scored 20 points after being cleared to play only Monday and participating in one team practice, Wright certainly will be expecting more out of his guys later this week against Providence and beyond.

“One of the things that we pride ourselves in is doing the little things right,” he said. “We made a lot of little mistakes, a lot of them Seton Hall exploited and were very smart about. But we definitely weren’t digging in and grinding it out at the end. I think we were more surviving at the end.”

Samuels and Caleb Daniels tested positive for COVID-19, leading to the Wildcats’ third and most recent pause beginning Jan. 4. Daniels, still recovering from a calf injury, practiced just one day but fought foul trouble in the game and did not score in 12 minutes.

» READ MORE: Practice? Villanova’s Jermaine Samuels didn’t need practice. | Mike Jensen

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, the team’s top scorer and rebounder, also struggled, hitting just 3-of-12 shots for eight points and pulling down just one rebound. Wright said he was affected by the fact he couldn’t get into his “routine” of shooting, workouts, and stretching during the team’s quarantine.

In addition to Samuels’ gutty performance, the Wildcats had another senior, Collin Gillespie, to help carry the night. Gillespie scored 22 points on only 10 shots, sinking all eight of his free throws, even though he was strangely quiet during a stretch of almost 13 minutes in which he took just one shot, then scored 10 points in the final 11:35.

Gillespie said he and his teammates did the best they could with their conditioning for the resumption of play, but admitted that they didn’t handle game situations that well.

“I think it’s difficult because the layoff was not really expected,” he said. “It’s new for everyone. After being off for 3-4 weeks, you’re not in game situations. It’s hard to really try to emulate what game situations are, game conditioning is. So I think with the more games we play, the more practices we get, we’ll get our legs back.”

Another area that needs work is Villanova’s play at the defensive end. Seton Hall shot 55.8% from the floor, best by a ‘Nova opponent this season. The Wildcats sank to 10th in the Big East rankings with a 46.3% defensive field-goal mark, and ninth in three-point defense (36.6%), stats that you know have the full attention of the coach.

But there was a positive. After sinking their first six three-point attempts, the Pirates shot just 2-for-14 from deep the rest of the way.

With the resumption of conference play, the Wildcats are 4-0, two games ahead in the loss column but a team that has played the fewest Big East games. They will next host Providence on Saturday, a game that has been moved from 8 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. by the Big East. A rescheduled game at Connecticut on Jan. 28 and a Seton Hall rematch on the road two days later are looming.

For now, Wright is happy to be back in a routine, and hopes it will continue.

“It started with practice, just being able to go to practice, going somewhere you had to be and be with the team was really enjoyable,” he said. “I think we’re all really grateful just to be able to play. I think we would have been upset if we lost, but I think we would have maybe not as upset as we normally are. We’re more grateful to be playing.”