After a long winning streak ends, one of the best ways to reflect on all of the success is by listening to whoever finally knocks that individual or team off. The opponent that finally breaks through usually has a pretty good appreciation of what they were up against.
More or less, this is what happened on Sunday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center. As the rest of the Delaware Valley was digging out of the snow, Villanova’s 22-game Big East winning streak came to an end. So did its 32-game home winning streak, as Providence (17-3, 5-2 Big East) knocked off the Wildcats (17-3, 7-1) 82-76 in overtime.
For so long, Villanova found a way to win despite being hunted by the rest of the Big East. While getting their opponent’s best shot night after night, they just kept on winning. So Ed Cooley knows full well that knocking off Jay Wright’s club is a biggie.
“This is an unbelievable win for us,” Cooley said. “Unbelievable win for us playing against a great team, arguably a team that will play for a national championship. Very well-coached, and tough, tough, tough. We’re really fortunate to get a road win against a great team.”
Providence was very respectful of Villanova, but they weren’t head over heels like the 1980 U.S. hockey team after knocking off the Soviets either. Nor they should have been. Wright summed it up well when he said, “We just got beat by a team that played better tonight.” And with the way 'Nova has played lately, a conference loss felt like it was coming.
While all of that is true, they still managed to make it a great game against the 16th-ranked Friars. The Wildcats were pretty fortunate to push the game to an extra five minutes in the first place. But there was Ryan Arcidiacono, who Cooley joked has been in college longer than Robert Parish played for the Boston Celtics, hitting his (approx.) 500th big shot in a blue and white uniform:
“It’s a play we do every single day in practice, an end of game situation and we just executed it,” Arcidiacono said.
Kris Dunn missed a jumper to win the game at the buzzer, and at that point, it seemed like Villanova’s game to lose. But in the Providence huddle, Cooley delivered a message that is familiar to Philadelphia basketball fans: Stick with the process.
Cooley’s motivational tactics proved effective, and that process he spoke of was two-fold. Defensively, Providence (KenPom rank: 15th nationally) played an aggressive 2-3 zone seemingly not much different than the one Jim Boeheim has employed for four decades.
There were times when Villanova found success attacking in the middle of the zone, but they didn’t get the ball inside enough. A familiar problem contributed to the loss, as the Wildcats shot 9-31 from deep. Here is how they shot the ball in their three losses this season:
| Opponent | Three-Point Shooting |
| Oklahoma | 4-31 (13%) |
| Virginia | 10-26 (36%) |
| Providence | 9-31 (29%) |
“They just suckered us into [all of the threes],” Wright said. “We didn’t get to the foul line a lot because we just settled. You see a zone, you can get off threes. They’re packing it in, not playing you man-to-man. You just got to mix it up.”
I would imagine that Wright spends a good portion of the week — The team’s next game is a week from today at St. John’s — working on zone offense. On the other end, Providence shot a more manageable 8-22 from deep.
The Friars are at their best when the electric Dunn (13 points, 14 assists, 5 boards, 4 steals, 6 turnovers) gets out in transition and leads the break. They created 20 points off Villanova turnovers, and Dunn was able to manufacture enough offense in the half-court. Forward Ben Bentil, who played his high school basketball at St. Andrew’s School in Delaware, led Providence with 31 points and 13 rebounds.
Villanova paid a ton of attention to Dunn (like, all five guys focused their eyes on him when he had the ball), and the projected lottery pick still controlled the game. There is a chance that the 21-year-old lead guard will be pretty used to playing at the Wells Fargo Center by this time next year.
“With the level of attention in the middle of the floor on Ben and Kris, we worked on shooting,” Cooley said.
For Villanova, center Daniel Ochefu didn’t start the game due to a minor disciplinary issue after losing his cool in a practice. The senior big man finished with seven points and 11 rebounds.
“It’s not a big deal, I hope that’s enough of an explanation that this doesn’t turn into a story,” Wright said, adding that Ochefu will start next Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
Truthfully, this loss was coming at some point for Villanova. They had just escaped at Seton Hall after just escaping at Georgetown a few games after escaping at Butler. Losing at home was a bit surprising, but if you play enough close games, one of them eventually won’t go your way.
“We have won a few games on the road where we said, ‘We didn’t play our best but found a way to win,’” Wright said. “And tonight, we didn’t play our best but a lot of it was because they did. I think we’ve been trending toward this, and these guys played a great game.”
In a season of college basketball marked by parity, there isn’t any shame losing to a team Providence. Now Wright has to get his team back on track.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann