No. 7 Villanova avoids letdown, sets up Georgetown rematch

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As a longtime assistant coach at a national powerhouse like Duke, Steve Wojciechowski never got too accustomed to seeing his team get run off the floor in a big game.

But that’s exactly what happened in the Sweet 16 of the 2009 NCAA tournament when Villanova hammered the mighty Blue Devils by 23 points on its way to the Final Four.

Now the first-year head coach at Marquette, Wojciechowski had visions of that game flash through his head when his team was again dismantled by the Wildcats. And although the stakes were much smaller in Villanova’s easy 70-52 Big East win over Marquette on Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center (see Instant Replay), the comparisons “Wojo” made after the game were quite large.

“This Villanova team reminds me a lot of the Villanova team that went to the Final Four that we competed against in the NCAA tournament,” said Wojciechowski, who was an assistant at Duke from 1999 to 2014 after playing for the Blue Devils from 1994 to '98. “I think they have an outstanding combination of veteran tough guards and rock-solid size.”

The interesting thing about Wojciechowski’s comments is that the Wildcats didn’t even play particularly well Wednesday, at least compared to how they’ve played through the rest of the season.

In front of a sleepy Wells Fargo Center crowd, the Wildcats turned the ball over on their first three possessions, committed 15 turnovers for the game, and shot just 37.7 percent from the field.

But while their offense struggled, Villanova’s defense completely shut down a Marquette offense that gave the ball away 17 times and shot just 23.3 percent in the first half. That allowed the Wildcats to take a commanding halftime lead and never look back in a game the players happily described as an ugly win.

“It’s very encouraging because we know how good of an offensive team we can be,” point guard Ryan Arcidiacono said. “But it all comes down to the defensive end.”

Arcidiacono actually had a very nice offensive game, matching his season high with 18 points and shooting 4 for 7 from behind the arc. And the Wildcats were fueled by many of the same things that have allowed them to get off to it a blistering 20-2 start: solid three-point shooting, balanced scoring and strong inside play.

The big difference against Marquette was the turnovers. But in a long season, head coach Jay Wright believes that kind of thing is to be expected, especially against scrappy Big East foes.

“It’s never smooth,” Wright said. “If you look at our record, it looks smooth. But it isn’t. It never is. That’s what these guys know. They know we’re not supposed to be pretty every night.”

Speaking of not being pretty, the Wildcats will now turn to their attention to what’s sure to be an old-school, grind-it-out Big East game against longtime conference rival Georgetown.

In many ways, Wednesday’s lopsided win against the reeling Golden Eagles felt like an appetizer to Saturday’s main event in the same building. The stakes for that one will certainly be high as Georgetown handed Villanova its last loss — a 78-58 shellacking on Jan. 19.

What does Villanova need to do differently this time around? You might not be too surprised to hear senior Darrun Hilliard’s answer.

“It’s gonna be ugly,” said Hilliard, who had 12 points against Marquette. “It’s not gonna be pretty. But if we get down and grind and rebound the ball and get stops, I think we’ll be fine. Last time we didn’t really do those things like we’re capable of.”

Wright steered clear of using the word “revenge” for Saturday’s game, which will be nationally televised on Fox and will likely be played in front of a huge Wells Fargo Center crowd.

But he is eager to see how veteran players like Arcidiacono and Hilliard respond after they got beat up by the Hoyas two weeks ago.

“They got us good,” the Villanova coach said. “They just really outplayed us. I know our guys will be excited to see how far they’ve come since that game.”

Arcidiacono believes his team has come a long way — and not just from the last Georgetown game. He also believes this year’s squad will respond differently in March than the one last season that also dominated the regular season before losing its first Big East tournament game and its second NCAA Tourney contest.

Perhaps they’ll even fulfill Wojciechowski’s vision and return to the Final Four.

“With this team, we’ve been through it before so we’re not afraid of anything,” Arcidiacono said. “We’re just going to come out and play harder than the other team.”

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