Veterans put Villanova in position for a tournament run | Mike Jensen

If I could put stock in the future professional earning potential of any current Villanova player, I might choose Jordan Longino. The freshman guard is destined to make money from the game. He’s also an example of how Jay Wright is working his rotation this season, keeping it short, keeping a player such as Longino mostly on the bench.

It was Tuesday’s first half against Providence, Longino with the ball on the wing. He drove into the lane … but there was nowhere to go but trouble. No official turnover for Longino, but a lost possession. Wright pulled him right out of the game. (Didn’t bury him, got him back in quickly. Longino clearly is the most ready of all Villanova first-year players.)

The point here is that a lot of Villanova fans have stuck to a talking point this season, that their Wildcats would be better off in the long run if the young guys played a little bit more and the veterans could be rested more.

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It’s an interesting point … just wrong.

Anyone who wants a longer and younger rotation has to be willing to give up something to get that. You can’t have it both ways. Tuesday’s 76-74 thriller over Providence might be one of those sacrifices. That was no game for young men. Neither was the earlier thriller Feb. 15 at Providence.

This isn’t a normal college basketball season. It’s not just Villanova that’s older than usual, with Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels back for a fifth season of actually playing because of the pandemic.

Look at Providence. Center Nate Watson, always a handful, is 23 years old, in his fifth season. A.J. Reeves, 22 years old, fourth season. Al Durham, who sat out Tuesday but averages 13.3 points, 23 years old, fifth season. Noah Horchler, 24 years old, fourth season. Justin Minaya, turns 23 years this month, fifth season.

St. Joe’s transfer Jared Bynum is basically a sixth starter, and was an actual starter Tuesday, playing 39 minutes. Bynum turns 23 in two weeks, is in his third season of hoops, fourth year of college. La Salle transfer Ed Croswell, a good choice for top big man reserve in the Big East, is in his fourth year of college hoops. There wasn’t a first-year player who got even a minute Tuesday for the Friars.

Villanova fans arguing for a deeper bench absolutely got ammunition in some of the losses the Wildcats experienced earlier this season when they wilted late. You just also have to concede that playing younger guys would have put more winning games in danger.

This isn’t a new topic, and Wright has addressed it, noting that it isn’t just how the young guys play that is important, but how the older guys play with them. When Caleb Daniels comes into a game, there are no questions in the minds of his teammates of what Daniels might do. (Tuesday, he did it to the tune of 20 points, leading all scorers.)

Let’s introduce one more piece of evidence. It might be thrown out as hearsay, but I’m using it anyway. Before the season, Villanova had two scrimmages, against Rutgers and Duke. This is what I know for sure: Each was a loss. This is what I heard: Maybe a young player or two wasn’t quite ready for the competition.

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“That Rutgers scrimmage was a battle,” Wright said last week when I asked about it. “I expected them to get off to a 9-0, 10-0 start [to the season.] They were really tough, and we knew it. It really helped us get ready for the Duke scrimmage. Because we learned a lot. Their physicality, their size, their ability to iso and score, their rebounding.”

Asking a couple of Villanova players about Rutgers, you heard the same thing.

“They’re tough, they’re lengthy and they communicate and they take pride in what they do,” Eric Dixon said of Rutgers.

Any wake-up call aspects for the young guys from a scrimmage like that?

“Yeah, it just goes to show, they have a lot of guys back, too,” Samuels said. “It just shows you it doesn’t matter who is on the other team, the difference between winning and losing is very small, and approach matters. The young guys probably got a taste of that when we scrimmaged them.”

Did they take that as an L that day?

“I took it as a learning experience,” Samuels said. “It could have gone either way. At the same time, we went back and got better and that’s all that really matters.”

Maybe that scrimmage also was indicative of the kind of team that gives Villanova trouble. (Think great length, especially at the guard spots. Think Marquette.) We’re not suggesting Villanova’s bench guys were a mess that day. There was one session apparently when it was just bench vs. bench and rumor has it that Villanova got the better of it, easily. The point is, 2021-22 isn’t a season when it’s going to be young vs. young. Rutgers is right on the NCAA bubble because it has old guys. Villanova is a high seed because it has old guys.

If you want Villanova’s younger players getting more time, you’d have to be willing to give up a little NCAA seeding. The difference between a 2-3 seed and a 4-5 seed isn’t much during the season, but it can be massive during the NCAA Tournament. Avoiding playing a top seed is the best way to survive and advance. That’s what this season has mostly been about for Villanova, trying to set that up, when the TV timeouts get longer during March Madness and veterans take over the tournament.

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The Wildcats don’t have a future NBA lottery pick out there. They have veterans. That’s the real advantage they use to the last minute, win or lose. Eric Dixon is considered a young guy and he’s in his third year of college, now playing like a seasoned vet.

“It’s made our league great this year,” Wright said after Tuesday’s game about all the veterans. “It’s going to make the Big East Tournament great. All those guys have played in the Garden … You can have all veterans playing up there. I think it’s been the key to our league. Everybody’s got older guys who really know the game.”