2017-18 Villanova Basketball Preview: Tim Delaney

Tim Delaney

Hometown: Mullica Hill, NJ
High School: Pitman H.S./Blair Academy
Height: 6-9
Weight: 230 lbs

Player Preview:

Tim Delaney’s career at Villanova has not gone anywhere close to plan. Now in his third season on campus as a red-shirt Sophomore, Delaney has been through three hip surgeries that prevented him from playing his first year and cut his second season short.

But before heading to the bench last year he did get a little playing time and showed us what he could provide off the bench when healthy. He has the ability to space the floor and be a threat from beyond the perimeter, which could cause some matchup problems and open things up in the paint. In fact, he technically led the team last year with a blistering 50% from behind the arc, although some people may argue that two shots isn’t a big enough sample size.

Defensively, he was a little bit better than fellow big man Dylan Painter at moving within the defense and jumping out to guard the perimeter. That said, he’ll probably have trouble if asked to guard straight man on the perimeter, so Nova would likely play more zone with Delaney in the game. Even then, his biggest challenge will be improving his agility and speed, which could be a big ask given the surgeries.

The bottom line is that Villanova still doesn’t really know what they have in Delaney. He certainly adds another big body to the bench, and you can never have too many of those in college basketball. But outside of being a spot up shooter, a skill he showed off frequently in high school, we’re going to have to wait and see what he’s capable of on both ends of the court, and especially what he can do in the post.

Best Case Scenario: Delaney carves out a handful of minutes each game to keep the rest of the team rested. Offensively, he excels as a spot up shooter in the corners that pulls his defender out and creates more room in the lane for Villanova’s athletic slashers to finish at the rim. On defense, he proves to be a capable base-line defender in Nova’s match-up zone and can hold his own on the boards, or at least box out when Donte DiVincenzo comes flying in from the foul line.

Worst Case Scenario: The hip issues resurface and Delaney isn’t able to be an on court contributor for the Wildcats. But even in this scenario, he’s now an upperclassman who can be an effective and vocal leader on the bench. He’s been through it before, and he knows how he to be a contributor off the court.

Wisdom of the Crowds

We are pleased to bring back our Wisdom of Crowds experiment for the 2017-2018 season. In this series, we ask that you consider the points covered in our player preview to supplement your own personal insights and instincts to predict the points per game each scholarship player on the roster we score in the upcoming season.