All Hart -- Villanova's Senior is 'Hungry and Humble'
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIGEAST.com
It wasn’t long after Villanova had put the finishing touches on its 70-57 victory over St. John’s at Madison Square Garden last Saturday afternoon when head coach Jay Wright was asked about his stellar senior Josh Hart.
Wright was quick with a smile and almost as quick with gushing praise for his all-everything senior.
“He’s been amazing in that each year he takes on whatever role we need,” Wright said. “When he was a sophomore he was the MVP of the BIG EAST Tournament coming off the bench. And right now he leads the BIG EAST (in scoring) and he’s in there in assist-to-turnover ratio, assists, rebounding and field goal percentage. He’s as complete a player as we’ve had ever at Villanova.”
Hart, the best player on the best team in arguably college basketball’s best conference is an unassuming sort. There are no brash predictions, no trash talk, no “look-at-me” antics during a game. Instead what you get is a grounded, team-first player who tends to deflect questions about his career, choosing instead to talk about Villanova’s successes as a team.
So when asked about his thoughts on his career, one that includes joining a rather exclusive club at Villanova in which he is just one of 10 players in school history to log 1,600 points and 700 rebounds, his quest to land in Nova’s top 10 in career scoring and whether the Preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year’s place in Villanova history is secure, Hart again returns to where he is most comfortable - talking about his team.
“I don’t really know honestly. That’s something that I can’t really think about,” said Hart, who joined the 1,600-point, 700-rebound club in the win over Seton Hall on Jan. 16. “When you have a team and a program that has had this much success, we focus on playing together and not having egos. So that’s something that I can’t really think about. I have to keep being hungry and humble.”
Hungry and humble. It’s a formula that has worked well for Hart in his Villanova career.
So far in his Wildcats’ career, Hart has been an integral part of a Villanova machine that has posted a 54-7 record in BIG EAST regular-season play, captured three BIG EAST regular-season titles, one conference tournament crown and, of course, the National Championship last season. Currently Hart leads the BIG EAST in scoring at an 18.8 points-per-game clip, is fourth in minutes played (33.4), fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.1), seventh in assists (3.6 per game), ninth in field goal percentage (.527), is an almost 80 percent free throw shooter and is a surprising sixth in the league in rebounding at 6.5 boards per outing.
Well, not that surprising, according to the 6-5 guard.
“It’s not really a surprise to me,” Hart said. “I want to go and get every rebound. That’s just my mentality so that doesn’t surprise me at all. I just hustle and go after the boards every night.”
After collecting four rebounds in the win over Seton Hall, Hart has 706 career caroms, putting him just 10 short of surpassing former Wildcats star Kerry Kittles for the school record for rebounds by guards.
“It just shows progress, getting better every year,” Hart said matter-of-factly. “My coaches have all worked with me to make me the best player I can be. So I attribute this to them.”
Hart’s already stellar game has expanded this season to where he has also become more of a playmaker – he has 68 assists this season as opposed to 160 combined in his first three seasons – while also taking on the role of mentor.
“He’s really become a great leader,” Wright said. “He’s a really loose guy so I’m shocked at how well he has taken on leadership responsibilities. And he’s a humble guy and those guys look up to him. He does take that responsibility seriously.”
With his 11-point outing in the 30-point win over Seton Hall Monday evening, Hart now has 1,606 career points, moving him just past former teammate Ryan Arcidiacono’s 1,604 points for 20th place on Villanova’s all-time scoring list. If Hart plays to his average of 18.8 points a game for the rest of the regular season, he would pass former Villanova great Ed Pinckney and move into 10th place. That’s surely an accomplishment Hart would relish, no? Well, sort of.
“I don’t think about it but that would be an accomplishment that I’d love to get,” Hart said. “But I can’t be focused on that because if I do I could force the issue and start taking bad shots. I have to realize that I always have to try to make the right plays for the team.”
As the top team in the country again in the latest Associated Press poll, Hart was asked if the defending champions ever discuss their chances of repeating as kings of the college basketball world again this season. (Spoiler alert – they do not and will not).
“We’re definitely a one-game-at-a-time team,” Hart said. “I don’t think we’ve ever talked about repeating. Obviously everyone would love to do that but I think it’s kind of foolish to talk about it. Everyone wants to go to a Final Four. Everyone wants to win a National Championship. So for us to just talk about it is kind of pointless. We all know for us to even have that opportunity we have to keep getting better and keep being humble and try to be the best team we can be by the end of the year.”
Ah yes, the end of the year. Whenever that day comes for the Wildcats, whether it’s during March Madness or in another National Championship Game on April 3 in Phoenix, it will also mark the end of Hart’s illustrious career on the Main Line. And that’s a prospect Hart is beginning to become more aware of with each passing game.
“Every game gets closer to the end of my career here so I have to have the approach for every game that I have to play Villanova basketball, I have to play all out,” Hart said. “The clock is definitely ticking. If I’m lucky there are maybe 20 games left in the season. I only have a certain amount of games left where I can have a Villanova jersey on and to be in a program like this. It’s not something that I like to think of but when someone mentions it you realize the clock is ticking. Time waits for nobody. I’m almost at the end of the road.”
It’s a road Wright hopes will last again until the season’s final game, hoping to make his partnership with Hart last as long as it can.
“We’ve been through so much together. He’s been in so many big games and made so many big plays for us and we kind of share that,” Wright said. “He knows I have tremendous confidence in him and that’s very clear to him and clear to the team.”
But has Wright pondered what life will be like without Hart?
“No I haven’t. But now you’re going to make me start thinking about it so I will now,” Wright said.