By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to
BIGEAST.com
The Villanova Wildcats had a simple game plan coming into their BIG EAST Tournament opener against Seton Hall Wednesday night - Win four games in four days, capture the Wildcats’ first tournament title since 2022 - Jay Wright’s last year patrolling the Nova sidelines - and end a two-year drought without an NCAA Tournament appearance.
If you’re inclined to believe the TV talking heads who blather on incessantly about all things bracketology, four wins in four days is the only way the Wildcats will see the NCAA Tournament. Anything less and that NCAA-less streak will grow to three straight years. A very un-Villanova-like scenario indeed.
So the first order of business for sixth-seeded Nova was to not look past No. 11 Seton Hall and take down the seven-win Pirates. Sounds easy enough, especially since the Cats swept the season series from the Hall and, oh yeah, Villanova also boasts the top scorer in the nation in Eric Dixon and his 23.6 points a game.
Get by Seton Hall and move on to face No. 3 UConn in the quarterfinals. But first things first. Dispatch the Pirates. Survive and advance.
Part one of Nova’s plan went, well, just as planned. Despite the fact that Dixon went scoreless, assist-less and rebound-less in the first half, Villanova somehow managed to build an 18-point lead at intermission. The Wildcats then weathered a mini-Seton Hall run to start the second half before they caught fire as Dixon woke up with 11 points in a span of 2:26 as the Wildcats pulled away from Seton Hall to post a wire-to-wire 67-55 victory in the finale of Wednesday’s opening-round tripleheader.
Seton Hall saw its season come to a close with a 7-25 record while Nova (19-13) moves on to face defending BIG EAST Tournament and national champion UConn Thursday at 9:30 p.m.
“Proud of what our guys did out there,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “I thought we were really good defensively and withstood their runs. They just keep coming after you no matter what. (Seton Hall coach) Shaheen Holloway is one of the best coaches in our league. He always has his team prepared. They’re nasty. They’re tough. (But) again, proud of the way our guys competed.”
It was strange to see Dixon still scoreless with less than 16 minutes left to play. But he suddenly woke from his scoring slumber by knocking down a three-pointer with 15:04 to play in the second half. Forty-four seconds later he tossed in a layup then, following a jam by Wooga Poplar, DIxon logged a conventional three-point play before adding a three-ball from deep in less than a minute of play and the Pirates were in a 50-29 hole with 12:36 to go. Nova maintained its double-digit lead the rest of the way with the Hall never getting closer than 12 points.
Dixon finished with 19 points, all in the second half mind you, and Poplar added 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Wildcats. Isaiah Coleman led the Pirates with a game-high 25 points.
Step one of Nova’s four-day plan is now in the books. Step two will be a considerably tougher assignment for the Wildcats. But now it’s on to UConn.
“We treat every game like the Super Bowl,” Dixon said. “The last game we just played was the most important game of our season, the most important game of my career. The next one coming up is going to be the same thing. Most important game of my career, most important game of the season. That’s how we treat every game.”