Villanova made some bad history during the past week with a pair of 20-point road losses
The back-to-back 20-point losses are the first of the 690-game Jay Wright era with the Wildcats. The team is shooting less than 30% in its last three games, including 23% from three.
OMAHA, Neb. — Villanova has provided many historical moments in local and national college basketball history during Jay Wright’s tenure — national championships in 2016 and 2018, a Final Four in 2009, a 24-game winning streak in Big 5 play and a streak of 189 games without back-to-back losses over a period of five-plus seasons.
The Wildcats made history in the last week as well, but not of the good kind, in defeats of 57-36 on Dec. 12 at No. 1 Baylor and 79-59 Friday night at unranked Creighton.
It marked the first back-to-back losses of 20-or-more points in the 690-game Wright era on the Main Line. There have been other recent lopsided defeats — Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor in 2015, Michigan at Finneran Pavilion in 2018, Purdue in the NCAA Tournament in 2019 — but nothing in the span of six days like this.
For the first time since the reorganization of the Big East in 2013-14, Villanova (7-4, 0-1 Big East) stands below .500 while losing a conference opener for the first time. Its No. 9 ranking is expected to plummet after the Wildcats’ initial loss of the season to an unranked team.
The Wildcats have been in a horrific shooting slump over the past three games, counting their 67-53 win over Syracuse in the Jimmy V Classic on Dec. 7 at Madison Square Garden. They are shooting 29.9% overall during the istretch, including 23% from three-point range. After hitting 3 of their first 5 threes in the first 12 minutes against Creighton, they went 1-of-19 the rest of the way.
Wright notes that his team’s offensive flow has been missing, as evidenced by the nine assists the Cats have handed out in the last two games, including a season-low four Friday night.
“We’re struggling,” he said after the game. “We’re just trying to do it on our own, not selfishly, just trying to get us going. Every guy, individually is trying to get us going and we’re losing our rhythm offensively. We’ve got to learn from this and we’ve got to get our offensive rhythm back.”
Another issue is getting guards Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore to be playing their best at the same time. After being limited to seven shots and six points against Baylor, Gillespie (16.2-point average entering the game) came out more aggressively against Creighton and scored 16 points but made just one three-ball in eight tries and 6 of 17 overall.
Moore (15.6 points per game), who led the Wildcats with 15 at Baylor, went only 3-of -10 for six points Friday night while sporting zeroes in the stat columns marked three-point baskets made, rebounds, and assists.
In their four losses, Villanova has shown an inability to finish. They gave up leads of 10 points against UCLA and 11 points against Purdue, both midway through the second half, and were outscored, 36-17, by the Bruins and 24-5 by the Boilermakers down the stretch.
The Cats reduced their deficit to nine against Baylor in the second half but managed just one field goal in the next 8 minutes, 51 seconds. They appeared to be gaining the momentum against Creighton after cutting a 12-point lead to two, 56-54, with 8:38 left, but missed their final 12 shots.
If there’s one thing the three-game stretch has shown, it’s that the Wildcats could use a rim protector like the ones they’ve seen — 6-foot-11 Jesse Edwards of Syracuse, 6-10 Flo Thamba of Baylor, and 7-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner of Creighton, who had five blocked shots and altered at least that many more.
With Villanova playing one of its worst defensive games of the season, the Bluejays took plenty of liberties going to the basket against 6-7 Jermaine Samuels and 6-8 Eric Dixon and finished with 42 points in the paint. After the Cats cut the deficit to two, Creighton’s next five field goals were layups.
“That definitely was not one of our best defensive efforts,” Wright said. “You’ve got to give them credit. They’re always a tough team to guard. I love how they play. The guys with the ball are unselfish. The guys without the ball cut real hard and help out their teammates. We’ve done a good job sometimes. We did not do a good job tonight.”
In addition, the Wildcats dropped to 0-4 when outrebounded, losing the battle, 41-29, to the Bluejays.
There’s plenty of season left and the Wildcats play only twice the rest of this calendar year — at home Dec. 21 against Xavier and Dec. 29 versus Temple. But they need to get back to playing their brand of basketball — unselfish and confident in their shooting — to keep pace in a wide-open Big East.