Villanova’s big men are stretching out the floor behind major production from the three-point line

At times lately, the Villanova offense might appear to be a little backward, with its guards backing down their defenders close to the basket and then kicking out to a big man for a three-point shot.

Call the offense what you want, but it’s working. In their last two games, the fifth-ranked Wildcats have received major production from forwards Jermaine Samuels and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl from deep.

Three days after Samuels knocked down six three-pointers in seven attempts and scored a team season-high 32 points in a win over Georgetown, Robinson-Earl had his own little party from beyond the arc, going 5-for-5 — all in the second half — and scoring 27 points Wednesday night to lead the Cats (13-2, 8-1 Big East) to a 96-64 rout of Marquette.

“J-Rob was hitting shots and guys were finding him and he was making the right decisions,” said point guard Collin Gillespie, who tied a career high with 11 assists and scored 16 points. “The last game it was Jermaine. We have a lot of guys that can score the basketball. It can be any guy on any given night and I think we do a really good job of sharing the ball and recognizing that.”

Entering Wednesday night’s game at Finneran Paviliion, the 6-foot-9 Robinson-Earl had made 12 three-point baskets in 14 games while shooting 27.2% from deep. His career high for threes in a game was two.

So it appeared rather remarkable when, after Marquette had mounted a 13-4 run to narrow Villanova’s 18-point lead to nine at 61-52 with 11 minutes, 33 seconds to play, Robinson-Earl made three consecutive three-pointers in a 1:30 span off two assists from Justin Moore and one from Gillespie.

That boosted the Wildcats’ margin to 16 and the Golden Eagles (9-11, 5-9) would get no closer.

“I work at it with the assistants (coaches) to get my shot preparation right, just the little details, pay attention to the details getting a lot of those shots up,” said Robinson-Earl, who went 10 of 11 from the floor and added eight rebounds and three steals. “So when you’re in the game taking those shots, you’re just as confident as possible.”

Villanova coach Jay Wright said Robinson-Earl only started shooting the three once he arrived on the Main Line and has worked hard at it.

“You don’t just do it overnight,” he said. “You don’t just come out one night, ‘OK, now I’m a three-point shooter.’ He worked all last year, worked all offseason by himself. We work on it every day. He works after practice, he comes in extra. Same thing with Jermaine. It’s starting to become a consistent part of their game and this is what it looks like. It takes time to develop it.”

In the second half, the Wildcats scored a season-high 56 points on 70% shooting from the field and 66.7% (10 of 15) from three, with 15 assists against two turnovers. For the game, they shot 63% and 59% from deep, and dished out 25 assists on their 34 field goals.

Having five guys able to shoot the three will make it a headache for Villanova opponents, the next one being No. 19 Creighton on Saturday in Omaha.

“I think it’s just kind of how Villanova basketball is,” Robinson-Earl said, “that the guards can play as the bigs, or guard the bigs, and the bigs can guard the guards and play like a point guard. I think it’s just the way that we practice, our preparations for the games, how the coaches are teaching us on a day-to-day basis.”

One late highlight was the 2020-21 debut of sophomore guard Bryan Antoine, who suffered an injury last October to his surgically repaired right shoulder and is slowly rounding into form. Antoine played the final 4:47 and dished out one assist.

“He’s really levelheaded, a really bright kid,” Wright said. “He doesn’t get as worked up about all this as everybody else does. It’s really impressive. It’s just one of the things we love about him. He knows his situation, he gets it. He knows he’s going to be good. He knows he’s going to get time out there, and he knows what he does in practice is what’s really going to make him good.”