If someone were to ask you to name the top players in the BIG EAST, names like Kris Dunn and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera might top your list. How about Kellen Dunham? Not a bad choice. You might also throw out the name of Dunn’s wingman Ben Bentil, perhaps Roosevelt Jones at Butler, Henry Ellenson at Marquette, Ryan Arcidiacono at Villanova, Isaiah Whitehead at Seton Hall or Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett.
All excellent choices. But one name that might not come to mind right away is sixth in the league in scoring and is also his team’s scoring leader, the team that is currently occupying the BIG EAST penthouse. Meet Josh Hart, the BIG EAST’s “Quiet Man.” Quiet, perhaps, to fans outside of Villanova, but among conference players and coaches, the Quiet Man brings with him a rather loud game.
Hart’s 15-point, 10-rebound effort in No. 4 Villanova’s 72-71 victory over Seton Hall in Newark Wednesday night was merely his fifth double-double in his last nine games as the Wildcats (17-2, 7-0 BG EAST) extended their winning streak against BIG EAST opponents to 22 straight. He also remains the lone Wildcat this season to log double figures in scoring in all 19 Villanova games.
“I would be surprised if he snuck up on opponents,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “He was the MVP of the BIG EAST tournament last year (and was also named the BIG EAST’s Sixth Man of the Year) and he really came on at the end of the year. I’m sure coaches aren’t surprised. He’s just one of those guys where, he wasn’t a starter last year and we have so many great names in our league – Kris Dunn and Ryan Arcidiacono, (Henry) Ellenson and all the Xavier guys, we just have so many great players that I think he just wasn’t in that conversation early. I do think he’s getting in there now and I think that’s where he belongs.”
Hart has posted double-doubles against Delaware, Seton Hall (twice), Butler and Georgetown and came within a single rebound of logging three other double-doubles against Akron, Stanford and St. Joe’s. Still he still might be the third name to come to mind even among Villanova players, after both Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu, the two Wildcats seniors that grace the cover of the team media guide.
“I don’t really care about it,” Hart said with a grin after the Seton Hall game. “They can say whoever they want to say but all I know is I got to come out and do my job, come out and play hard and help my team no matter what it is. I let everyone else talk about that stuff, about who the best player is and who the best team in the league is. I’ll just go out and do my job.”
It’s that very work ethic that first attracted Wright to Hart when he was recruiting him out of high school.
“We definitely saw his work ethic,” Wright said. “One of the things that we noticed in AAU ball was that he played with a lot of great players and he did all the dirty work. And then on his high school team he was the leader - leading scorer and leading rebounder. He was the guy who set the tone. So in evaluating him we really felt like we were getting a great player. Maybe he didn’t have the name of all the other guys we got but we felt we were getting the best guy.”
Hart’s work on the court has also caught the eye of opposing coaches, one in particular who got to experience one of Hart’s double-doubles.
“When you talk about Josh Hart the conversation probably should begin and end with how hard he plays,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. “He plays as hard as anyone in college basketball. He gives 110 percent on every possession. That’s his biggest asset. Now you couple that with the fact that he clearly has put in time over the last couple of years and his shot is much improved. But at the end of the day just his work ethic and his caring and how hard he plays is his biggest asset.”
Hart scored 15 points and pulled down a dozen rebounds in Villanova’s 55-50 victory over Georgetown on January 16.
After playing a supporting role in his first two seasons, Hart knew his work load would change drastically in this his junior season. Now he follows in the footsteps of former Villanova upperclassmen that helped steer him in his early years with the program.
“I knew my role would be bigger this year, I’m starting and not coming off the bench,” Hart said. “I’m playing more minutes than I ever have before so I know I have to step up and be a leader. I don’t have the Darrun Hilliards, JayVaughn Pinkstons and James Bells behind me, the upperclassmen who would kind of cover my mistakes. Now I’m in that position. But I know if I just go out there and play Villanova basketball as hard as I can that I’ll be successful.”
Speaking of success, that’s all the Villanova Wildcats seem to have enjoyed since the birth of the new BIG EAST at the start of the 2013-14 season, posting a 79-10 overall record to go with a sterling 39-4 mark in BIG EAST play. Included in there is a pair of BIG EAST regular-season titles and last year’s tournament crown.
So how does this year’s Villanova team stack up against the first two Hart has played on?
“We have great depth. We’re young and lacking in experience a little bit but what we’re lacking in experience, we make up for by just playing hard,” Hart said. “We got a lot of young guys who are buying in and who are listening to upperclassmen and doing whatever we have to do and when you have that, that can cover up for the inexperience.”
Hart and Villanova will look to extend their winning streak against BIG EAST opponents to 23 when the Wildcats host No. 16 Providence at noon at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday. It’s a game that will include Dunn, Bentil, Arcidiacono and Ochefu. It will also include Hart, the Quiet Man who, because of his sizzling play of late, may need a whole new nickname by this time next week.
“I think I’m probably playing my best ball right now,” Hart said. “But I think I can get a lot better.”
BIG EAST opponents, you have been warned.