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The Villanova Men's annual Blue/White Scrimmage was held on Saturday evening.
Being the math major that I am, I enjoy taking down stats, even in a game as rapid as basketball. You learn to write some shorthand, adapt on the fly, and hope you can make out your scribbled mess later on. I probably missed a rebound somewhere, or miscredited a turnover. But on the whole, there's a lot that you can tell from stats that you may not remember otherwise.
The game, which had two 15-minute running-clock halves, didn't allow for a ton of play. Especially given Villanova's ability to deflect passes out of bounds and draw fouls, the 30 minutes of play probably averaged out to little more than a half of play in college basketball. So if you want conversions, doubling each players' stats will probably be an overestimation on how they would have played on any given night. Meanwhile, a slow-developing slugfest with Butler's hey-day team would result in stats very similar to what was posted this afternoon.
Keep in mind, of course, that there were days when Arch would go 2-10 from deep, or as a team we'd shoot 26% overall. There were also days where the team shot 50% from three. So one game does not a season make, and it'll take a few games before we can truly see how the players have developed.
Team Blue was made up of Arch, Bell, McMahon, Lowe, Jenkins, and Ochefu. Team White featured JVP, Hilliard, Reynolds, Hart, Chennault, and Farrell. Lowe was 0/1 from deep and Farrell didn't get any counting stats, but neither turned it over. Here are the rest of the stats from today's scrimmage:
TEAM BLUE
Ryan Arcidiacono- 2/3 FG (1/2 3pt), 3/3 FT, 8 PTS, 3 A, 1 TO, 1 STL, 3 dives on the floor
James Bell- 3/6 FG (0/2 3pt), 6/6 FT, 12 PTS, 1 REB, 1 TO, 2 STL
Nick McMahon- 2/2 FG (2/2 3pt), 6 PTS, 1 REB
Kris Jenkins- 2/4 FG (2/3 3pt), 3/3 FT, 9 PTS, 3 REB, 1 A, 1 TO, 1 STL
Daniel Ochefu- 2/6 FG, 1/2 FT, 5 PTS, 5 REB, 1 A, 1 TO, 1 monster block
TEAM WHITE
JayVaughn Pinkston- 3/6 FG (1/2 3pt), 2/3 FT, 9 PTS, 4 REB, 4 TO
Darrun Hilliard- 1/4 FG (0/3 3pt), 2/2 FT, 4 PTS, 2 A, 2 TO, 2 STL
Darryl Reynolds- 1/3 FG, 2 PTS, 2 TO, 1 monster block
Josh Hart- 1/2 FG (1/2 3pt), 0/1 FT, 3 PTS, 3 REB, 1 A, 1 TO, 1 buzzer-beating three
Tony Chennault- 0/4 FG (0/1 3pt), 0 PTS, 1 REB, 1 A, 1 TO
Some instant reactions:
- Arch played today like it was the Big East Tournament. It was great to see him filling up a stat-sheet in all the good ways.
- Bell had a quietly great game. No surprises from the senior leader. Made the right passes, made all his free throws.
- Where did Nick McMahon come from?! The former walk-on earned a scholarship this year (per Jay Wright at Hoops Mania), had a bucket in their Hoops Mania scrimmage and went 2/2 from deep today. It'll be interesting to see if he ever gets playing time.
- Everyone's been saying Jenkins has a sweet stroke. He proved it today.
- Casual observers may have noticed Ochefu's play today as disappointing. He only made two shots, both cherry-picking slam dunks. Offensively, he didn't gel as well as I think he can. But his 5 rebounds speaks to the fact that his many minutes could easily lead to a double-double most nights.
- Two, if not three, of JVP's turnovers were offensive fouls in the paint. We saw this last year, and by January he was timing his drives better and pulling back when necessary. Don't worry about his hands.
- We saw games like this from Chennault last year, where he might not make a shot all game, and sometimes not even record many assists. But he played a solid game, and led an offense with two freshmen and two walk-ons. He'll do a great job in the backup PG role like we saw him in last year, but if you want a scoring guard off the bench, you may have to wait a month for Ennis to come back.
Well there you have it. If I have a ton of time this year, I may try to make this into a recurring piece. Suggestions for names are welcome. Make sure to follow Jeremy Menninger at @Jereminator for a student's take, and myself at @imPULSEivity for a stats-based approach. Go 'Cats!