Notes and quotes from Jay Wright's Wednesday press availability.

On Jermaine Samuels' development during his time at Nova...

“He’s the nicest, sweetest person in the world. He’s one of those guys you’d love to date your daughter. That’s not always the best thing for a basketball player, and I think that’s where he’s really grown, his competitiveness throughout his career. Also his skill level. His competitiveness, his skill level, decision making, it’s really been enjoyable for our coaching staff to watch his overall development on the court. Off the court, he’s always been a really good student, really nice person, good teammate, but on the court, his skill, competitiveness and basketball IQ have really improved.”

More on dealing with Gillespie injury...

“Different guys affect teams differently. There’s probably never been a guy since we’ve been here, one guy, that’s had such an impact on a team in that year. Collin is our leader on the court, off the court. He’s the only guy who played in the national championship game in 2018. He’s just brought so much to our program. It was devastating in how bad we all felt for him, number one. Number two, we were all, myself included, we were all so comfortable with him leading the way for us in everything we did. I would consult with him about decisions we’d make about travel, about days off, he was such a big part of it. So it took us a while. But I think that Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Jermaine Samuels have really stepped up and just kind of taken over the leadership of this team and it’s pretty impressive to watch.”

On the Big East and having two conference teams in the Sweet 16...

“We’re proud of the Big East. All of us in the league, we all text each other during the tournament. We really do take pride in being a basketball league and all the decisions in the league are made about men’s and women’s basketball. So we really root for each other. I think having two teams advance to the second weekend is important for our league and it shows what we believe, we can play with anybody in the country.”

On point guard Robinson-Earl and JRE's versatility...

“What we loved about him was his versatility. I would be less than honest if I told you I was thinking about playing him at the point. We probably thought three through five when we got him. The way it happened in the Creighton game was amazing because Collin got hurt, I was tending to Collin and I was honestly more concerned about Collin at that point, we got Collin off the court and they started the game up and Justin Moore had two fouls, he was out of the game. So they all looked at me like who’s running the point so I said ‘Jeremiah’. We had never practiced it and he did an incredible job so once we saw it in the first half we stuck with it in the second half and now we’ve included it as part of our package. He’ll probably be an NBA player next year but if he came back I’d definitely play him at the point.”

On being an underdog...

“You don’t think about it that much. But there’s definitely less pressure on the coaching staff. But I don’t think the players think of themselves as underdogs, which is a good thing. Sometimes that’s something you have to battle when they’re not underdogs. The good thing about coaching young people, 18-22, I don’t think that they think they’re underdogs that often but as coaches you definitely know you are.”

More on Gillespie...

“Collin’s surgery went extremely well. We communicate with him every day. I personally gave him an assignment as an assistant coach, and gave him a due date for today, to have a scouting report, watch film on Baylor, send me a scouting report. I told him to have it for me today, I got it the night before last at two o’clock in the morning. As soon as I gave it to him he did it, did an outstanding job. We’re gonna try to get him and Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree both out here Saturday for the game.”

Wright also had noted earlier in the season that he felt the team was having difficulty playing Villanova basketball consistently. On Wednesday, he said he felt they were making progress in that area.

Villanova advanced to the Sweet 16 with a win over North Texas and will face 1-seed Baylor for a trip to the Elite 8. The game has been scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The game will air on CBS.

A very nice win for the Cats Sunday night as they advance to the Sweet 16.

A look at the Mean Green ahead of Sunday's Round of 32 matchup.

Jay Wright met with the media Saturday evening ahead of Sunday's Round of 32 game against North Texas. Here's some of what was said/discussed.

On controlling the pace/defending against Winthrop...

"I thought we did a good job of getting back in transition defense and getting matched up against Winthrop, that was probably the best thing we did. And we took care of the ball, so they didn’t get out in transition a lot."

On Bryan Antoine coming along...

“He really is. He was out nine months after his last high school game before he was able to touch a basketball. It wasn’t like a foot injury where he could be shooting around or dribbling, it was his shoulder, he couldn’t touch a basketball. So he’s really starting to come into his own where he knows what we’re doing, he’s physically healthy and his shoulder is physically strong.”

On Justin Moore looking healthier...

"He played that Georgetown game, he never practiced, he just shocked us the day of the game saying he wanted to try so we didn’t get much out of him. He took a couple days off after that, but he got to practice for three or four days before that game (Winthrop). And getting a game under his belt is really important, I think that helped him. So I hope he can go to another level against North Texas.”

A thought on the overall performance on Friday...

“I was really proud of our guys. Really without Collin Gillespie who does the majority of our ballhandling, I thought the other guards, Justin Moore, Chris Arcidiacono gives great minutes, Caleb Daniels, Bryan Antoine really handled the ball well, Cole Swider did and they were really smart with the ball against a really good defensive team.

As usual, we'll have some more quotes from Wright that are more specific to the North Texas game in our game preview.

Nova moved on to the Round of 32 with a solid win over the Eagles.

Villanova's Round of 32 matchup with North Texas has been set for 8:45 Sunday night. The game will air on TNT.

Villanova handled business in Friday's NCAA tournament opener against Winthrop, winning 73-63 to advance to face North Texas in the round of 32. There were technical difficulties at the venue starting late in the second half, and as a result they were unable to hold the postgame press conference. The school is working on getting statements out from Jay Wright and a player, and will pass those along if/when we get them. We'll have a recap of the game shortly, but it might look a bit different than usual and the stats feed was also disrupted so we'll do the best we can in that department. I've already noticed some discrepancies in the ESPN stats, so we'll see how it goes. Anyway, very nice win for Nova and we'll have our recap up in a bit.

A look at the Eagles ahead of Friday's first-round NCAA tournament matchup.

Notes and quotes from Jay Wright's Wednesday press availability.

On simply getting to the NCAA tournament in a crazy year...

“I think it’s an accomplishment in itself for our players, for the NCAA and for the Big East to have gotten through a season this year. I’m proud of our conference and I’m proud of our players.”

On getting the offense on track...

“We are getting there defensively. Offensively we lost our leading scorer and our most dynamic player, the guy that creates shots for everybody else. So we’ve been adjusting offensively to try to find other ways to create high percentage shots. I thought we did a better job in the Georgetown game than we did against Providence playing without Collin, but obviously not good enough. That’s the area we’ve been working on and we gotta improve going into this Winthrop game.”

On any potential advantages of a short Big East tournament...

“I definitely like it the other way. I like winning the tournament, that’s much more fun and I think it’s more advantageous heading into a big tournament like this. I don’t know if we can really take advantages going into this. Because of Collin’s injury and Justin’s injury we thought we needed the practice time, that was a positive, but at this point in the season, you don’t want to practice too much and wear guys out so that was a balance we had to strike. I know our guys are hungry and I know obviously humbled by our last couple games so I hope that will be an advantage for us going into the Winthrop game.”

On the importance of Justin Moore and the other guards stepping up...

“Justin is gonna be a very integral part of our offense and our defense, our leadership. As is Chris Arcidiacono. Chris Arcidiacono gets a lot of responsibility now, as does Caleb Daniels. Those guys gotta really step up. Collin was so adept at creating shots when we needed for himself and making everybody else better in the process. Justin’s gotta do all of that now, as Chris Arcidiacono does. Both of them are gonna have to play much bigger roles now in our game against Winthrop.”

On the difference in NCAA tourney preparation this year...

“It’s completely different. Usually, we come back on Sunday and we know the guys are worn out. We probably do less practice in preparing for the NCAA tournament than most teams because we wanted to give them off Monday and Tuesday, we wanted to get fresh legs for the tournament. Whereas this year we needed to practice because we had to kind of recreate how we play without Collin and we needed to get Justin Moore a couple days off after the Georgetown game and then get him in practice to get him acclimated to a new role. So it’s been completely different than anything we’ve done before because of losing in the first round and because of the injuries to Collin and Justin.”

On potential takeaways from the Georgetown game...

“I thought we played better offensively than we did in the Providence game. We looked a lot more comfortable without Collin. I thought in the Providence game we looked out of sync. I thought in the Georgetown game, we didn’t play that poorly, Georgetown was playing great basketball, we had a chance to win that game in the end. I think we took a little bit of confidence of playing without Collin out of that and learned from some things we did in that game. Got Chris Arch some time, obviously Brandon Slater more time, Eric Dixon some time, so I think that’s something that will benefit us in our first round NCAA game.”

On Big East opponents that compare to Winthrop...

“I think they’re a combination of Butler and Creighton. They play really fast like Creighton and really disciplined defensively like Butler.”

On Justin Moore's health/availability...

“Justin’s good. I think he’ll be good to go. I don’t know if he’s 100% but he’ll be good to go. He’ll practice and be good to go.”

A look at Nova's first-round opponent.

Notes and quotes from Jay Wright's Selection Sunday media availability. Apologies for the delay in getting this up, between trying to get familiar with Winthrop and the Trevor Keels news it's been a little hectic.

On the NCAA tournament...

“We are so excited to start this final portion of the season. We always talk about never taking this for granted. It’s such an honor to play in the NCAA tournament but I think this year more than ever just to be able to make it to this point and know you got a chance to play in this great tournament is an incredible accomplishment and I wanted to make sure our guys understood that."

On the emotion of getting to this point after a trying/unique season...

“There’s a lot of feelings but relief is one of those feelings. We made it this far and we made it through the regular season, we made it through the conference tournament and we get to play in the NCAA tournament. It really is a great sense of relief and it’s a sense of accomplishment.”

On the unsteady play down the stretch (4-4 over last eight games) heading into the tournament...

“The head coach worries about everything so I would be less than honest if I didn’t say I had a concern. But I do have a good feeling about this group and their confidence. I do have a good feeling about their prospects and how committed they are, how positive they’ve been with their attitude.”

On Villanova being immediately placed on upset alert by media/fans...

“It’s something that we try to do all year with these guys to get them to understand. A lot of time the noise is overhype for us, so we try to explain to them we’re not listening to people when they say we’re really good, we don’t have to listen to them when they say we’re not good either. I’m sure we’re gonna be a trendy pick to get upset in this game but I think our team understands that being at Villanova this is something you deal with all the time. We evaluate ourselves by our own standards but we respect that fans and media have to have their opinion. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t get to play in front of these great crowds that we normally do and have the excitement of the NCAA tournament, so you gotta respect everyone’s right to have their opinion.”

On his message to players getting their first taste of the NCAA tournament...

“It’s one of the great experiences of your sporting career, of your basketball career. Enjoy every minute of it, make sure you leave everything on the floor, and don’t take it for granted, don’t think you’re gonna be back there next year.”

As we work through the release of the NCAA tournament bracket, we got a bit of a curveball as Trevor Keels tweeted a set date for the announcement of his college decision. Keels will be committing on April 4.

Keels had been down to a final three of Villanova, Duke, and Virginia, but a late offer from Kentucky put those other Wildcats in contention. Keels has also kept his recruitment very close to the vest, making it difficult to gauge who might be in the lead or even what factors were most at play in his decision-making process. However, Villanova has gained some traction in the recruiting analyst world over the past week, so there is certainly a ton of intrigue.

It's great to have a date for a commitment from Keels, and someone will be very happy come April 4.

Villanova has its draw for the NCAA Tournament and will open against Winthrop in the 5/12 matchup.

Literally immediately, Nova became a trendy pick to be upset as Seth Davis picked against the Cats on the reveal broadcast as soon as the matchup was announced. Since, many in the college basketball media have followed his lead.

We'll have plenty of coverage of the matchup this week, including thoughts from Jay Wright who is meeting with the media momentarily. But I want to leave you with one quick note amid the storm of anti-Nova analysis already floating around. Winthrop has an impressive 23-1 record. However, its best KenPom win was over No. 92 Furman. It beat No. 100 UNC Greensboro. After that, its next best win is No. 179 Gardner Webb (2x). Winthrop has 13 wins against KenPom #'s 200-299 and six against KenPom 300+. Winthrop's strength of schedule ranks 309th out of 357.

Compete against the Rivals experts for the best NCAA Tournament bracket with a chance to win a free subscription. Join our Tourney Pick 'Em game here:

Four things that stood out from loss to Hoyas.

An abrupt, disappointing end to Nova's BET run as brutal 8-minute stretch dooms Cats.

Interesting news out of Madison Square Garden this morning/afternoon as Justin Moore participated in pregame warmups and could potentially play today. Chris Arcidiacono and Brandon Slater will slot into the starting lineup for the Cats, but we'll be keeping an eye on the scorers table to see if Moore makes an appearance. At the very least, a much more optimistic outlook than a few days ago and a sign that Moore's ankle is responding well.

We talked with the publisher of Georgetown's Rivals page ahead of Nova's Big East Tournament game against the Hoyas.

Different starts but similar makeup leads pair of Wildcats to conference POY honors.

On Wednesday afternoon, Jay Wright informed reporters that Collin Gillespie underwent surgery on his MCL injury Wednesday morning and that everything went well.

"Collin's doing great and we're gonna try to get him up here at some point," Wright said.

Coach Wright one of 14 finalists for the class of 2021.

Arch has confidence in himself and the trust of his teammates as he takes on a bigger role on the game's biggest stages.

With all of the injuries Nova is suddenly dealing with, one of the big debates going on around Nova Nation is who steps into the starting lineup between Brandon Slater and Cole Swider. While we haven't discussed it much here, it's been a big topic on social media and the consensus has been that it should be Slater. However, it was Swider who got the call on Saturday and on Tuesday Jay Wright provided some insight into the decision that I thought was interesting.

“One of the things we were thinking about, Cole Swider is one of our inbounders. We knew we were gonna get pressed because of not having Collin, so we were thinking we’re already down a point guard let’s not be down an inbounder too. So let’s start Cole, that’s what we were thinking about. Slater’s been playing great, great defensively, and we know we can play Cole at any position. We gotta make a decision but it really doesn’t matter to us because they’ll both play the same amount of minutes.”

Again, I just thought that was interesting and provided a look at some of the things coaches have to think about that fans might not realize or consider.

Villanova doesn't put much stock in defining traditional positions and, as Wright noted, generally judges its rotation in terms of minutes played rather than who does or doesn't start, but, at least to me, it's interesting to get a glimpse into some of what goes into these decisions beyond what even very knowledgeable basketball fans might think to consider.