Villanova out to contain Providence's Dunn
The basketball world marvels at Providence guard Kris Dunn for all the things he can do at the offensive end of the court, but Jay Wright says Dunn has just as much of an impact on a game at the defensive end.
The basketball world marvels at Providence guard Kris Dunn for all the things he can do at the offensive end of the court, but Jay Wright says Dunn has just as much of an impact on a game at the defensive end.
One thing's for sure: Villanova will know where Dunn is at all times when the 16th-ranked Friars make their first visit to South Philadelphia in almost six years on Sunday, taking on the No. 4 Wildcats at the Wells Fargo Center in a game delayed for a day by the snowstorm.
The 6-foot-4 junior is averaging 17.2 points, 6.2 rebounds and a Big East-best 6.7 assists. But it's his work at the defensive end - he leads the conference in steals at 2.9 per game - that has Wright's attention.
"He's bigger and stronger; I think he got a little taller," the Villanova coach said. "What's interesting about him is, he has really impacted us defensively. He's like one of those defensive backs that you've got to run your offense away from him. He's really hurt us.
"In a lot of games, he's come up with steals, he's stolen outlet passes and made big plays. We'd be starting to pull away and he'd make a couple of big defensive plays. So he's actually hurt us defensively as much as he's hurt us offensively."
The Wildcats (17-2, 7-0) swept Providence (16-3, 4-2) in all three meetings last season, twice during the regular season and again in the Big East tournament semifinals. In those games, Dunn averaged 14.3 points, six rebounds, eight assists and 2.3 steals.
Dunn scored 22 points in the tournament game to go with seven rebounds, nine assists and two steals. He scored the tying basket with 12.4 seconds to play, only to see Ryan Arcidiacono sink two free throws with 3.1 seconds to play to give 'Nova a 63-61 victory.
"He brings everything to the table," said Arcidiacono, who was named Big East co-player of the year with Dunn last season. "He's a focal part of their team. He rebounds, he scores, he passes, he's the defensive player of the year from last year, Big East player of the year. So he pretty much does it all."
The Wildcats are coming off one of their poorer defensive games of the season. They played solid defense down the stretch against Seton Hall to eke out a 72-71 Wednesday night at the Prudential Center, but the vast majority of the game saw the Pirates' guards drive to the hoop without much resistance.
"We found a way to win, but we can't dismiss the fact that defensively, their guards were just flying by us," Wright said. "We're not the kind of team that has one lockdown guy that you put on a guy and just tell him to stop him. We do it all as a team. [Seton Hall] got us spread out and got us going one-on-one. We're not supposed to get spread out. But we can't get caught in one-on-one situations with" Dunn.
In the last meeting of the two teams at what was then the Wachovia Center, Villanova got 22 points each from Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher in a 92-81 win over the Friars on Feb. 13, 2010.
