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

On heading to the Big East tournament...

“This is a special time of the year. Big East tournament, NCAA tournament, it’s a special time of the year for us. We feel grateful to be able to go to New York and play in this. Getting this far this season, I think we’re all grateful for it.

On the injuries, experience issues heading into the postseason...

“It’s just a fact. It’s not a concern, it’s not something we talk about or even worry about. We’re just concentrating on our effort and our attitude going in there and how hard we can play and how together we can be given the changes in our lineup. No excuses. We’ve been very, very fortunate with the injury bug, very fortunate, and it’s our turn right now, we get it. And we’re up for the challenge.”

On the vibe entering the postseason without Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore...

“It’s definitely a different feeling. It’s definitely a weird vibe. Being at practice today and Collin and Justin are on crutches, it’s just weird. It definitely does not temper the excitement. We are fired up about it. The young guys want the opportunity, as a coach you want to give it to them. You just don’t want to give it to them at the expense of a guy like Collin or Justin but now you have to and it’s a positive. Let’s see what we can do. We’ve had a couple good days of practice, let’s see if we can keep getting better here. Every game you get you get to get better, we always use every game, win or lose, as a learning experience. We’re excited about it.”

On takeaways from the Providence game...

“We learned a lot about Chris Arch, he did a great job. We got Bryan great experience. We got Eric in there, we got Eric some experience in game situations. It would have been great if we could of stole that one, get a win and gotten those guys experience before the Big East. I think that’s a positive coming out of that game.”

On necessary adjustments with Gillespie and Moore out...

“We definitely have to tweak some things. But in tweaking things we try to keep it as basic conceptually as possible. There’s certain things you gotta do. Who plays the point, when you’re at the backup point where does everyone line up press offense, where they line up baseline out of bounds. With Justin out, who is the backup point and the two guard, the structure of where everybody initiates offense and initiates defense is different but then once we get going we want the concepts to be the same.”

Per head coach Jay Wright, Justin Moore has been diagnosed with a "severe ankle sprain" and is "doubtful for the Big East tournament."

The good news here is that it's just a sprain and there are no breaks, but Villanova will certainly face a tough road in the Big East tournament without Moore in addition to being without Collin Gillespie. Hopefully, Moore will be able to go when the NCAA tournament kicks off a week from Thursday.

Cats' comeback falls short.

A look at the Friars as Nova looks to wrap up the regular season on a strong note.

The team was dealt a tough blow with the loss of Collin Gillespie, but it remains confident as it prepares for postseason play.

We'll have a bunch of Gillespie stuff today as that was a big topic of today's press availability, here we have some thoughts on the team adjusting to not having Gillespie available.

Everybody's worst fears have been confirmed. The school announced Thursday evening that an MRI has confirmed a torn MCL for Collin Gillespie and he is out for the season.

Just a devastating development for Villanova. Holding out hope for good news after tomorrow's MRI, but the tone postgame didn't paint an optimistic picture.

A bittersweet night for the Cats.

Nova looks to avenge loss to the Bluejays.

The seniors are focusing on the task at hand before considering their next steps.

Notes and quotes from Jay Wright's Tuesday media availability.

On the growth of the seniors during their time at Villanova...

“I think Dhamir has grown as a man the most. He’s become such a mature, intelligent thinker. Very strong-willed and very passionate about his beliefs and his views. He’s been a leader for our team in the Black Lives Matter movement. Jermaine has probably improved the most as a player. He’s come so far from his freshman year, his basketball IQ has gone through the roof and he’s really become an intelligent, tough basketball player. And then Collin has probably developed into one of the great leaders we’ve had. I’ve watched him grow in terms of maturity and leadership. Obviously as a player he’s improved, but I’m really impressed with how much he’s improved as a leader to be one of our best ever.”

On the journey of that senior group...

“It’s been a rough trip. It started off like a Disney movie. They came in and everything was easy and they were playing with great players and you win a national championship, they probably thought wow this is gonna be easy. And then they got smacked in the face. The next year we lost more guys than we thought we were going to, we got blown out by Michigan, and lost to Furman. So they’ve probably had the highest highs and the lowest lows. And now the last two seasons with the pandemic. It’s the beauty of college though. I think they’ve grown so much as men. They’re gonna take great life lessons from here. They’re gonna be really successful husbands, fathers, businessmen, leaders in their community. I’m really proud of those three, and Kevin Hoehn, our fourth.”

On the importance of the seniors in helping to navigate a unique season...

“Our three seniors have been vital in helping us get through this. There’s so many off the court decisions…our bubbles, our travel, our roommates, our testing. Having three seniors like that that are able to guide everybody through it, keep a great attitude, set the tone on how to be here now when they show up for practice every day, I’m really proud of those guys and really impressed with the kind of men they’ve grown into.”

On the importance of the seniors heading into postseason play...

“They’re really the only two that have played in postseason play. Our juniors didn’t get much playing time and obviously our sophomores didn’t get to play in the tournament last year so we’ve only got two guys that have played. So they’re gonna be really valuable to us.”

On the "inverted offense" and Villanova's use of guards in the post...

“Ryan Arcidiacono brought it to the program. Ryan started doing it and then we incorporated it. Jalen learned from Ryan, and then you have to go against those guys every day so Collin having to go against Jalen and Phil he picked up on it and he has impressed us with how efficient he’s become in the post.”

“It is valuable to have that guy be able to score in there and when he gets fouled make free throws and also make good decisions passing out of there. Any good big guys that can do that are valuable but if you get a guard it’s even better.”

On potentially winning a Big East championship...

“It’s something that we purposely don’t talk about, it’s something that we try to stay away from until the end of the season. We always sit down at the end of the year and we look at what were our accomplishments, what were our failures, what were the lessons learned and then where do we all go from here. I think at the end of this year everything that we’ve been through, life lessons are gonna be unbelievable. If we were fortunate enough to win a Big East championship I think that would be something we would take great pride in.”

A rough afternoon for the Cats.

A look at the Bulldogs ahead of Sunday's matchup.

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

On having fans in attendance at Butler...

“It was almost comforting having fans in there (at Creighton), it just felt a little more normal. It wasn’t the normal intimidation of a road crowd, it was more feeling like everything is back to normal. I hope it’s enjoyable to us, just the energy of having fans in the stands.”

On Butler at Hinke Fieldhouse (Bulldogs are 7-4 at home)...

At home, they go to another level. They’re very comfortable in that place, it’s actually a great place to play. I think players love playing there. They are so dialed in at home offensively.

On potentially playing NCAA Tournament games at Hinkle...

“It would be pretty cool. I think we do like playing there. It reminds me of the Palestra. I wonder if they would let us play there knowing that we’ve played conference games there, I don’t know if we’d be allowed to play there but it would be pretty cool.”

As always, we'll have more from Wright on the specifics of the Butler game in our game preview.

More national recognition for the Cats.

Four things that stood out in Tuesday's big win.

On Tuesday night, future Wildcat Jordan Longino became Germantown Academy's all-time leading scorer. The player he passed is familiar to Nova fans... former Wildcat Alvin Williams.

Williams earned a Big East first-team selection and a Big East tournament team selection at Nova before playing nine seasons in the NBA, with his best seasons coming with the Toronto Raptors from 2000-01 to 2002-03.

Now, Longino appears poised to be the next great Wildcat from Germantown Academy, and he put a nice capper on his high school career by passing Williams as the school's all-time leading scorer Tuesday night.

It's an interesting bit of trivia to think about as we wait to see what Longino does in a Villanova uniform.

Nova avenged the earlier loss to St. John's in empahtic fashion Tuesday night.

A look at St. John's as Nova tries for some revenge.

Some national recognition for Gillespie.

Notes and quotes from Jay Wright's Monday press availability. As always, we'll cover Wright's St. John's specific thoughts in our game preview.

On trying to prepare for the speed of certain opponents, like St. John's...

“We try to go 6-on-5 and we try to address situations that look good in practice, but we say alright that looks good here but that’s not gonna work against St. John’s. We really try to identify those situations and it’s hard and a lot of times you gotta get in the game and just gotta get a feel for the speed and hope you can adjust quickly.”

On the challenges of wearing a mask, specifically regarding communication...

“Early in the year when we were up in the bubble I got reprimanded by our team doctor because I was in the huddle with my mask down and he said that defeats the whole purpose, you’re in a huddle. I was like you’re right. That was way back in the beginning so I’ve learned and I really try to keep it on all the time. And because I try to keep it on, there are many times where I’m yelling out calls and we run something different and I’ll say to Collin what the hell were we doing and I’ll say what the call was and he said 'oh I thought you said something else.' When I feel like they’re struggling I pull it down real quick to yell but it definitely happens where you miscommunicate calls.”

On the expectations after the recent run of success and if that change ever crosses his mind...

“It does. It’s a new challenge to deal with for coaches and the players. It’s a good problem to have, but it is a challenge. You lose one game and the players feel terrible, they feel like they’re letting everybody down, they feel like they’re letting the previous players down. The previous players are upset when you lost a game (laughs). It is a new challenge. We really do try to keep things in perspective within our team, we try.”

A solid win from the Wildcats on Saturday.