Can Villanova rebound against Marquette after first loss?
It took nine months and 23 days, but Villanova finally lost a basketball game this week. "It felt bad. I honestly did forget what it felt like," Wildcats coach Jay Wright said Friday. "It felt real bad. It's hard to get over losses. Every competitor will tell you, losses stick with you. I think I'm starting to get over it a little bit now."
It took nine months and 23 days, but Villanova finally lost a basketball game this week.
"It felt bad. I honestly did forget what it felt like," Wildcats coach Jay Wright said Friday. "It felt real bad. It's hard to get over losses. Every competitor will tell you, losses stick with you. I think I'm starting to get over it a little bit now."
The defending national champion Wildcats (14-1, 2-1 Big East), still in possession of the No. 1 ranking for another few days, will need to get over Wednesday night's 66-58 loss at Butler in time for Saturday night, when they will take on Marquette (10-4, 1-1) at the Wells Fargo Center.
Wright is fond of saying he would rather his players learn from victories than from defeats, but he admitted after practice at the Pavilion that the Butler loss was "motivating" and that it can refocus them and improve their attention to detail.
He mentioned home games against American, which the Wildcats won by 42 but had a rough 10 minutes at the start, and DePaul, which came within a missed three-pointer of forcing overtime.
"We kept approaching the details and the fundamentals, and we were slipping a bit, but we were still winning," Wright said. "A loss always shocks you. I still think you can do it without getting shocked from a loss, but a loss definitely gets the players' attention and gets you paying more attention to detail."
He said that against Butler, "there were portions of the game where we slipped in terms of our goals."
"But you've got to give Butler credit, too. Sometimes you've got to say they played better and made better plays," he said.
Josh Hart, who was limited to 13 points, seven below his average, on Wednesday night, said the Wildcats did not exhibit "Villanova habits" that would help them gut out those types of games.
"Obviously the last game, we had some plays that we definitely had to make," he said. "The three seniors, with the Villanova habits, would have made those plays. But every game is a learning lesson for us. It doesn't have to be a loss. We had 13 games we won - or 14, I don't know - that were all learning lessons."
Marquette, which hasn't played since losing, 69-66, to Seton Hall on Sunday, possesses "great aggressiveness and depth," according to Wright. The Golden Eagles have seven players who average between 8.9 and 13.4 points per game.
The top three scorers - Jajuan Johnson, Luke Fischer, and Haanif Cheatham - all are back from last season, but they have been supported by four newcomers, including freshman Markus Howard, who scored 37 points combined in his first two Big East games.
"He comes in with great poise," Wright said of Howard. "I don't know how old he is, but he plays like he's 25, not like a freshman. He's really intelligent, can really shoot it, and he's a good decision-maker."
The Golden Eagles will be dealing with a Villanova team on the rebound.
"We knew we weren't the hardest-working team on the court" Wednesday, Hart said. "It stung that night. But we have very competitive guys. We're not going to dwell on the loss."
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