If you had Villanova vs. North Texas in NCAA second round, you win | Mike Jensen

It’s not unusual that Villanova is a better basketball team playing with a lead. What’s interesting about the 2020-21 Wildcats, it does not have to be much of a lead. A yearly highlight film about this present bunch should go by, Comfortable with being uncomfortable.

If you stayed up Friday night, you saw it. Not just how Villanova won. How it had to win, against a Winthrop group that was an oh-so-popular 12-over-5 upset pick.

Not only didn’t that happen -- Villanova 73, Winthrop 63, final -- it never much looked like it was going to happen. Even when Jay Wright’s group let go of a first-half working margin with a long dry spell, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and company spent only 94 seconds of the game playing from behind, none of those seconds after halftime.

» READ MORE: How it happened for Villanova against Winthrop

This, too, was obvious: Control the tempo, win that game. The winning coach was going to be talking about that early Saturday morning, whichever winning coach.

“Really good defensive game,” Wright said later. “I thought our defense was the key to the game. … We got matched up really quick.”

Let’s quickly point out that winning a puzzle named Winthrop only means you get to solve an entirely different puzzle ... one called North Texas. Sunday, that’s the second-round opponent, 8:45 p.m., after North Texas pulled off a 13-over-4 upset over Purdue.

Friday, Winthrop had to be able to play fast, to push the pace, to take advantage of its alleged advantage of playing 11 men, sending in fresh troops at every whistle. The Eagles of Rock Hill, S.C., hadn’t just won 23 of 24 games in 2020-21, they’d scored at least 70 points in 22 of those wins. They had won once scoring 55 against Radford, and lost once scoring 55 against UNC-Asheville.

They’d never once finished a game scoring in the ’60s. Until they saw Villanova.

What this meant is that maybe Winthrop wasn’t quite as comfortable playing when uncomfortable. Even bigger, this alleged advantage of depth swung hard the other way. If you think the 11th man for Winthrop is as talented as even, say, the seventh man for Villanova -- no chance.

For starters, Villanova simply had more talented guys beginning the game. You saw that right away. Robinson-Earl had his way inside. Justin Moore heated up quickly. Maybe Jermaine Samuels didn’t have a big offensive game, except he made some nifty inside feeds. Off the bench, Cole Swider hit a huge three-pointer at the end of the first half, which meant those seconds when Winthrop had a lead didn’t include any when they were sitting in their locker room during halftime. Villanova, up one.

After the break, Villanova immediately did what it likes to do in these kinds of games: getting to the foul line, hunting whistles, taking threes, but not entirely depending on the vagaries of the three-point line.

» READ MORE: Illinois was a mountain too high for Drexel | Mike Jensen

Biggest shots of the game? Bryan Antoine provided, twice. Villanova was up three soon after halftime when Antoine hit a three. Next possession, another Antoine three. Villanova suddenly up nine, still over 16 minutes left.

Too soon to say that was it, except that was it. One time, Winthrop got within three. Another time, four. Somehow without injured point guard Collin Gillespie, Villanova committed a stingy six turnovers. Even at that, four were on offensive fouls, which meant high-flying Winthrop scored exactly three points off turnovers. Game, set, match.

North Texas, different puzzle. The Mean Green play at an even slightly slower tempo than Villanova. They win scoring in the 50s and 60s, or by scoring 78 against Purdue.

I happened to write our North Texas NCAA capsule for the tournament preview. Here’s what I’d come up with for a little scouting report: “The Mean Green are proof that momentum can start with your next jump shot. After losing its last three regular-season games, North Texas won four straight to take the [Conference USA] tournament crown. … Dangerous because they make 37.6% of their threes, 34th-best nationally, while giving up only 31.6%, 61st nationally … They’re looking to control tempo, and are 42nd nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency.”

The operative word may be dangerous, in an entirely different way than Winthrop. For Villanova, that could mean 40 more minutes of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, Sweet 16 on the line.