Villanova’s Eric Dixon is waging an All-American campaign, and he’s starting to get some help from his teammates

Is it possible for a college basketball player to score a quiet 25 points? Like the tree falling in the woods and still making a sound, 25 is still 25.

During its Big East-opening, 79-67 victory over Seton Hall on Tuesday night, the best sign for Villanova was that Eric Dixon wasn’t all that loud. The nation’s leading scorer — he finished Tuesday tied with Green Bay’s Anthony Roy at 25.7 points per game — wasn’t all that efficient, either.

He scored nearly a third of his points from the free-throw line. He missed five of his six three-point attempts to drop below 50% from deep on the season. His three turnovers canceled out three assists. Fourteen of his 25 points came in the final 5 minutes, 39 seconds of a game that was never really in doubt. He was, however, plus-11 in a game Villanova won by 12. Single-game plus-minus is an imperfect stat, but this sample size said enough about his presence. The Wildcats will likely win a lot of the minutes when Dixon — a fifth-year player in his sixth school year at Villanova — is on the court.

There were stretches early on this season that Wildcats coach Kyle Neptune called “wobbly” when Dixon was the only stabilizing force. He nearly single-handedly beat a Maryland team that entered Wednesday ranked 17th by KenPom metrics. The cast around him has been inconsistent at times, but a bit of balance has emerged during a run of five consecutive victories.

Neptune won’t want to play many minutes without Dixon, but the power forward went to the bench after picking up his second foul Tuesday on a questionable charging call with 5:35 left in the first half and the Wildcats ahead by nine. It was trending toward the kind of game Villanova, with Dixon finding a rhythm, could put out of reach by halftime. It instead became a spell when Neptune could get a prolonged look at a different lineup to close the half.

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Those Dixon-less minutes weren’t perfect; Seton Hall closed the half down eight. But there were signs of life from a group that appears to be coming together at the perfect time. No sequence showed that more than a 40-second stretch that started when freshman forward Josiah Moseley hit a jump shot from the elbow. Down the other end, there was a scramble for a loose ball, and the personification of the proper noun Villanova Basketball manifested. There was Moseley, diving on the floor for the ball. He flipped it to Tyler Perkins, who sent an outlet pass ahead to Jordan Longino, who dished to Jhamir Brickus for a layup, a 10-point lead, and a Seton Hall timeout.

“We want to be the team that gets to the floor first, that’s playing hard for 40 minutes, that’s scrappy and making those types of plays,” Neptune said.

Any analysis of Tuesday night’s game needs the context of the opponent. Seton Hall is not good. The Pirates, while solid and tough defensively, have no real flow on offense. They have three losses to teams ranked 166th or worse at KenPom, and the result Tuesday had coach Shaheen Holloway questioning the desire of some of his players.

Still, a Big East win is a Big East win.

Up next for Villanova is a Saturday road date with a Creighton team that Dixon has excelled against. The Wildcats are 8-4 and have won six of their last seven, and while three of those wins have come against teams rated 300th or worse, there are real signs of life. Villanova started Wednesday with the 10th-best offensive efficiency metric, according to KenPom. That number is, of course, boosted by Dixon, who leads the nation in offensive rating. But it’s more than that. Villanova had 17 assists on 26 makes Tuesday after 36 assists in the two games before that. The ball is moving better, and the Wildcats are getting cleaner looks.

Ask Perkins, the sophomore Penn transfer, how beneficial that has been. Perkins had 17 points Tuesday on 5-for-6 shooting from three-point range. He is 14-for-24 over his last five games.

“We trust each other and the coaches trust us,” Perkins said.

This is the type of offense Neptune thought he had when he retooled the roster via the transfer portal in the offseason with players he thought fit the style of play he prefers. Brickus, a senior La Salle transfer, was the point guard at the heart of that hypothesis. He had seven points and seven assists on Tuesday.

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“I think it’s really our guys are so unselfish and they’re making the right reads,” Neptune said. “I think they’re really starting to trust each other and it’s really on them. You put them in those spots. You call a play for somebody and they become a decision maker.”

Lately, the right decisions are being made. However, there is work to be done on defense, where Villanova rated 148th nationally as of Wednesday morning, a 180-degree turn from teams of Neptune’s recent past. There are reasons to believe Villanova will improve there, but Saturday in Omaha will be a real test.

Tuesday was a test, too, though not in the same way. Seton Hall (5-7) offered a physical defense that would examine Villanova’s strides on offense.

Dixon wasn’t perfect. Brickus had just seven points. Wooga Poplar, who has looked at times like the obvious No. 2 behind Dixon, made just one basket on three shots. Those ingredients would most likely be a recipe for a disappointing home loss, but instead, it was Perkins and Longino — who had 15 points and tied a career high with five assists — who provided the secondary punch the Wildcats needed.

Dixon, a potential All-American, will be at the center of wherever this season goes. “He just does so many different things in so many different ways and you look up at the end and see he has, again, 25,” Neptune said.

The quieter the better.