Seton Hall's Quincy McKnight and Villanova's Collin Gillespie will meet again on Saturday.
There is no hype needed for Saturday’s mega BIG EAST matchup. The one that has front-running Seton Hall and its 9-1 conference mark, travelling south down the turnpike to take on 7-3 Villanova, the usual ruler of the BIG EAST roost but currently sitting in second place.
Seton Hall wunderkind Myles Powell, one of the nation’s top players, going up against the undisputed kings of the BIG EAST since the conference reformed. A Wildcats outfit which owns a pair of national titles over the past four seasons.
Big deal? Yeah, you could say that, which is why if you’re not one of the lucky 20,000 or so who will be packing the Wells Fargo Center for Saturday’s 2:30 p.m tipoff, you’ll most likely be glued to FOX while plopped on your couch with a couple of cold ones.
It’s perhaps the marquee game of the BIG EAST season thus far. But not to the Wildcats. You see, Villanova has been rather successful going about its business with its level-headed, “don’t-get-too-high-or-too-low” mentality. And that’s not about to change with the Pirates coming to town. Even if this time the Wildcats will be playing the part of the hunter instead of its usual role as the hunted.
“They’re obviously the front-runners here in the conference and I think they are one of the best teams in the country,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. “And obviously we’re not there. I see that difference publicly. (But) within our program we know you can’t take any game in this conference and make it any bigger than any other. It’s just got to be next game. Whatever happens in this game, you’ve got to come back and play Marquette on Wednesday. So it’s got to be business as usual.”
Seton Hall, which has lost seven of its last eight to Villanova since beating the Wildcats in the BIG EAST Tournament championship game in 2016, has been a very resilient outfit, surviving absences of Powell (short term) and Sandro Mamukelashvili (long term) to build a 17-5 overall record. So Pirates head coach Kevin Willard is looking forward to Saturday’s contest as yet another chance for his team to add another chapter to what could be a very special season for the gang from South Orange.
“I know I’m excited because I know it’s a great opportunity,” Willard said. “I have so much respect for what Jay has done and the consistency that his players play at. And I know when we start watching film and try to figure out how to stop Collin Gillespie’s pick-and-roll and Saddiq Bey coming up off it, I know our guys will be juiced to play them.”
Speaking of Gillespie, Willard said he got to know the ultra-talented junior guard, as well as his teammate, Jermaine Samuels, when the three were together during the Pan Am Games last summer.
And the head Pirate came away impressed.
“They are two of the hardest working, most respectful young men I’ve been around in the game of basketball,” Willard said. “Collin, we always knew he was a leader, but to see him off the court, the way he interacted, the way before games he was so intense and got the guys going. And Jermaine is like a robot warrior. You tell him what to do and he goes out and he does it at such a high level. He’s probably one of the hardest competitors I’ve been around. I’ve always had such great respect for Jay’s program, but being around Collin and Jermaine and seeing how respectful they were to coaching and seeing how much they enjoyed being coached, they’re just two wonderful young men who I enjoyed being around.”
Despite his success against Seton Hall in recent seasons, Wright sees a different Seton Hall team this season and one to, perhaps, be a little leery of, come Saturday.
“They’ve had a lot of great teams and I’m sure they’re trying to prove that they’re better than some of the other great teams they had with (Isaiah) Whitehead and (Angel) Delgado and those guys,” Wright said. “They’re certainly in that class and I think they have a chance to be even better. And I think they have an experience level similar to that Whitehead-Delgado-(Desi) Rodriguez team. They’ve been there, they’ve been to BIG EAST championships, they’ve been to the NCAA Tournament. They have a higher level of connectedness than I think most teams in the country (have) and they also have more size than any team they’ve ever had there.”
Willard noted that despite the daily grind and nightly battles teams in the BIG EAST endure, there is also an admiration opponents have for one another in the conference.
“I think the great thing about this conference, every night, no matter who you’re playing, everyone has really good players on their roster,” Willard said. “(But) I think the unique thing about our conference is all these players get to know each other and I think they really enjoy going to battle against each other. They have such great respect for each other. I think it’s something unlike anything else I’ve seen in college basketball. I think there is great competitiveness but there’s also great respect for all the players on the floor.”
With a month still to go before the BIG EAST Tournament tips off, Saturday’s matchup in Philly should deliver a little taste of March as the top two teams in the conference go at one another.
“I think at this time of the year, more than anything, every game is a big game,” Willard said. “Our guys are excited but what I love about this group more than anything is that they’re excited to go out and battle every night, whether it’s Nova, Creighton or Georgetown. I just think in the middle of February in this conference it’s the most exciting time in college basketball. So I just think they’re excited to just go out and compete again and compete against the best program in the conference for the last five years.”