Villanova's Bridges aims to stay in groove as Xavier visits
It took only a few days for Villanova swingman Mikal Bridges to find his groove again on offense after a surprising game against Butler when he was mostly invisible at that end of the court.
It took only a few days for Villanova swingman Mikal Bridges to find his groove again on offense after a surprising game against Butler when he was mostly invisible at that end of the court.
Bridges came back from an 0-for-3 scoreless outing in the Wildcats' upset loss last week to stuff the stat sheet against Marquette. He sank all eight of his shots (one two-point basket, three three-pointers, four free throws) en route to 15 points Saturday in 'Nova's 93-81 victory at the Wells Fargo Center.
Bridges, who also had four rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots in the game, needs to show the same kind of energy on offense, according to his coach, on Tuesday night when the now-No. 3 Wildcats (15-1, 3-1 Big East) host No. 15 Xavier (13-2, 3-0) in a key Big East matchup at the Pavilion.
"He never really had a game like he did against Butler; I kind of think that was an outlier," Villanova coach Jay Wright said Monday after practice. "I never saw him not aggressive like that. Against Marquette, he looked like himself. He's got to be that way every night for us."
Bridges, who averages 9.7 points per game and is fourth in the Big East in field-goal percentage at 58.9 percent, blamed himself for the poor game against Butler.
"I didn't have the mind-set to be aggressive and everything I did was soft," said the 6-foot-7 redshirt sophomore from Malvern. "So watching tape and talking to the coaches about what happened just made me realize that every time I step on the court I have to be aggressive. When you're being aggressive, then everything else happens."
The Villanova offense did close to a 180-degree turnaround against Marquette. The passing was crisper, the cuts were sharper. The Wildcats shared the ball enough to record 24 assists as compared to seven against Butler while shooting a season-best 65.3 percent after a 2016-17 worst 37.3 percent the previous game.
"Everybody was just being aggressive looking to score," Bridges said. "If they don't have an open shot, they're going to look for each other. It's everybody trying to make a play. If they see an open guy, they're going to make the pass."
The Wildcats will need more than offense to defeat Xavier. The Musketeers play great defense, allowing 66.5 points per game and forcing more than 14 turnovers, and rebound by committee - their 8.1-rebound margin is tops in the conference.
They have one of the Big East's top scorers in Trevon Bluiett and one of the best point guards in Edmond Sumner, who took a frightful spill in last year's contest at the Pavilion and played just the first two minutes.
"Edmond Sumner is one of the top talents in the country," Wright said, "but what makes him so good are the guys around him. It's hard to concentrate on just stopping him because there's so much scoring around him. With the shooting around him, he's virtually unstoppable. You've got to kind of keep him under control, is the best you can do."
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