NCAA Basketball: Villanova’s struggles, 2K Classic outcomes and other takeaways

1) Villanova got a wake-up call

Oh. my. goodness.

Villanova’s loss to Michigan was ugly from the jump, but the Wolverines are a good team. But that loss to Furman on Saturday night? Yikes.

This is now the first time in six years in which the Wildcats have lost back-to-back games, but what’s more alarming is the way they’re playing in these games. Jay Wright teams have traditionally been built around smart play, high-level execution, and quality shooting, all of which were staples for their championship teams over the past three years.

However, this year’s team does none of those things well. Villanova has shot 17-59 from three-point range in those two losses (28.8 percent) while turning it over a combined 35 times.

It was always going to be hard for Villanova to replace the amount of talent they lost to the NBA Draft but we thought they’d at least do the things we know Villanova does well – and they aren’t.

Pretty much every player on the team has disappointed to an extent this year. Both Eric Paschall and Phil Booth have not taken that step forward to be more than role players, and Colin Gillespie has been a complete liability on defense. Furthermore, five-star freshman Jahvon Quinerly – who was expected to take over for Jalen Brunson – did not play in the Furman loss and has more turnovers (six) than field goals made (four) so far this season.

Wright is too good for Villanova to continue to struggle like this but it certainly doesn’t look like they have the talent to win the Big East.