Villanova looks to Hilliard for leadership

After spending three years in the Villanova basketball program as a quiet, laid-back player who could be a little too unselfish on offense, Darrun Hilliard was asked by his coach to sharpen his personality in a way to become more demanding and aggressive on the court and as a senior leader.

But Jay Wright was taken aback at Big East media day in New York when the player he calls "the most humble kid in the world" voiced his displeasure that no one from the Wildcats - the unanimous preseason choice as conference champion - received player-of- the-year recognition.

"I think it's wrong," Hilliard said at the time. "I don't believe it. It is what it is. They have their opinions. I don't understand it."

Hilliard, who made the preseason all-conference second team, admitted later that he misspoke and that his comments were out of character. Wright said they had several conversations about how to handle being a cocaptain and representing Villanova basketball. But Hilliard's remarks showed, if anything, that he would stick up for the team and his teammates.

"Normally, if I hear something I don't like, then I take it all in and look at the positive side of everything," Hilliard said. "I guess I was kind of drawn into it. I have great expectations for myself and for this team. But just in that moment, I wasn't myself.

"Coach talked to me about it. I learned from it. I definitely feel like I can be that more vocal leader, be more up front with my teammates and just be the all-around guy that anybody can turn to."

The 6-foot-6 Hilliard is one of two seniors for 12th-ranked Villanova, a veteran team that has four starters returning and all the tools necessary to repeat as Big East regular-season champion, possibly top last season's 29 victories, and make a more successful run in both conference and NCAA tournaments.

Hilliard was second on the team in scoring last season with a 14.3-point average and hit better than 41 percent from three-point range. He has a versatile offensive game in which he can pull up from behind the arc or dribble past the defender to the rim, and is one of the Wildcats' best defensive players.

Wright, however, wants to see more aggressiveness from Hilliard, a natural righthander who shoots a basketball lefthanded. He said he would like to see him improve "the efficiency of his decision-making" on offense and "be on the attack all the time."

"It's something that does not come natural to him," Wright said, "but everything that we've asked him to do since he's been here, he does. So that's what we're working on. We want to see the consistency, being aggressive on every possession, and being vocal and being a leader.

"I tell him, 'I want you talking to everybody else. I want you to make sure everybody else is focused. I want you demanding of everybody else and not worried about you.' So you've got to tell him. He'll get there."

On the court, Hilliard knows it's a matter of "being more aggressive making the right decisions instead of just making a shot." Off the court, he knows he has to speak up.

"If I don't like something, I'll ask them about it before practice or after practice and not let things linger," he said. "I'll be frank with my teammates. If I don't like something they're doing, I'm going to tell them about it and not brush it off. We're going to talk about it as men and just build on that."

A keen observer of Hilliard over the years has been Mike Bachman, who met Hilliard when he coached him as a freshman at Bethlehem Liberty High School and became a mentor and friend. The two worked out together in the summer and still do whenever Hilliard goes home.

"He was always very self-motivated, very driven, a little on the shy side," said Bachman, now a business and technology teacher at Bethlehem Freedom High. "He wasn't the most outgoing when he wasn't around his normal group of friends. So he was a little more reserved, always very polite, but definitely very driven.

"In the middle of summer, when kids were hanging out and going to the pool, he would call me and text me wanting to go to any basketball hoop we could find so we could get a workout in. He was not someone I needed to motivate. You obviously can see that in his progression over the last four years at Villanova."

The Wildcats lost two players, starting forward James Bell and significant substitute Tony Chennault, from the team that earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament but lost in the third round to eventual national champion Connecticut. Along with four starters, three key members of last year's rotation are back, joined by two talented freshmen.

A tough nonconference schedule awaits, including Big Five games, contests with nationally ranked Virginia Commonwealth and Syracuse and a potential matchup against No. 24 Michigan. Hilliard said his team needs to take care of business every day, not worry about how to keep up with last season.

"We're not saying we have to match that or do better than that," he said. "It's coming out every day in practice, every film session, every meeting to prove to each other - not anybody else - that we're down for playing hard, playing together, playing smart, playing with pride. That's our goal every day."

Last season: 29-5, 16-2 Big East, won regular-season championship, lost to Connecticut in third round of NCAA tournament.

Coach: Jay Wright (14th season, 286-149; 408-234 in 20 seasons overall).

Roster

No.   Name   Pos.   Ht.   Wt.   Year   

0   Henry Lowe   G   5-11   185   Jr.

2   Kris Jenkins   F   6-6   240   So.

3   Josh Hart   G   6-5   205   So.

4   Darrun Hilliard   G   6-6   215   Sr.

5   Phil Booth   G   6-3   185   Fr.

14   Darryl Reynolds   F   6-8   225   So.

15   Ryan Arcidiacono   G   6-3   195   Jr.

20   Patrick Farrell   F   6-5   200   Jr.

22   JayVaughn Pinkston   F   6-7   235   R-Sr.

23   Daniel Ochefu   F   6-11   245   Jr.

25   Mikal Bridges   G/F   6-7   191   Fr.

31   Dylan Ennis   G   6-2   193   R-Jr.

52   Kevin Rafferty   F   6-8   215   Jr.

Schedule

14 Lehigh%. . . 8

17 Maryland Eastern Shore. . . 7

20 Bucknell. . . 8

24 Va. Commonwealth#. . . 7

25 Michigan or Oregon#. . . TBD

30 Delaware@. . . 4:30

3 at La Salle. . . 8:30

6 St. Joseph's. . . 1

9 Illinois&. . . 7

14 Temple. . . 2

20 Syracuse. . . 1

23 NJIT. . . 7

31 Butler. . . 2:30

3 at Seton Hall. . . noon

6 at St. John's. . . 9

10 DePaul. . . 4

14 Xavier. . . 9

17 at Penn. . . 7

19 at Georgetown. . . 9

25 Creighton. . . 7

31 at DePaul. . . 2

4 Marquette@. . . 7

7 Georgetown@. . . 2

11 at Providence. . . 8

14 at Butler. . . 6

16 Seton Hall. . . 7

21 at Marquette. . . 2

24 Providence. . . 7

28 at Xavier. . . 2

3 at Creighton. . . 9

7 St. John's@. . . noon

11-14 Big East tournament, New York

Home games in bold

% – at Allentown

# – Legends Classic, Brooklyn, N.Y.

@ – at Wells Fargo Center

& - Jimmy V Classic, New YorkEndText

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