Villanova Basketball has nowhere to go but up

Happy Monday Nova Nation! Let’s all take a big, deep breath. That’s good, fill up the lungs... and out. Again. Great job. Now, let’s talk about Villanova Basketball.

Like many of you, my weekend has been full of debate, rants, conjecture, and all around chaos when it comes to the questions, “how did this happen?” and “what happens next?”. There are a number of opinions out there ranging from one extreme (Jay Wright’s ego is destroying these players) to another (Jay is flawless and if you don’t trust in him you’re not a true fan). While I may not share either of those opinions, I’m not going to challenge anyone here for believing what they want to. Why? Because believing is all anyone outside of that locker room has right now.

We’re currently living in a world full of theory and opinion. We’re trying to read into every bit of minutia that we see on the TV screen because we 1) didn’t anticipate things breaking so bad and 2) haven’t set up the secret recording devices in Jay’s office yet. The result is wild accusations of players going to transfer, NCAA violations, hidden injuries, and internal conflict. The reality is that we don’t know what’s happening, and we’re not going to anytime soon.

What we can do, is wait and see. I’m going to follow the advice I give my 2 year old every day, and try to have some patience. And while I wait to see what happens with this team that’s played only four games of its season, I’m going to try to remember the following three reasons why we should have hope that things will get better.

1) Jay Wright is a good basketball coach. He’s not perfect, no one is. And yes, he does make mistakes. He’ll be the first to tell you that. But often times he learns from those mistakes, and adapts to turn them into positives. It’s no fluke that two of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport (Mike Krzyzewski and Gregg Popovich) have invited Wright to be a part of their staffs with USA Basketball. It’s no fluke that the man won two national championships. And it’s no fluke that the last time Wright lost two of his first five games (four of his first eight to be precise) still won 20 games and made the NCAA tournament.

2) This is a talented team that will get better. While they may not be playing up to their potential right now, this is a very talented squad. Sometimes players take a while to gel, or for things to click with each other. For the underclassmen, it can take some time to get accustomed to the college game. I’m not saying the team is guaranteed to play at its highest level this season, but it’s unlikely they’ve achieved it in their first four games.

3) We all love Villanova Basketball. We won’t all agree on what needs to change for this team to get better, or what the best approach is. A casual perusal of the comments below is sure to be evidence of that. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a fan, who’s the bigger fan, or whether you’ve seen the team play better or worse than it’s playing now. At the end of the day we all want this team to improve and play at their best. Yes, wins would make everything a lot better. But at this point, I think we’d settle for seeing improvement at the expense of losses. Let’s just remember that even if we disagree on the best way for this team to get better, in the end we’d all be happy with that result regardless of how it was achieved.

All of that said, please please PLEASE don’t lose to Canisius. I really don’t think the site could handle it.

In other “news”, Nova drops back to back games for the first time since 2013, best of luck to Dylan Painter, and feast week is upon us. Enjoy!

College basketball rankings: Villanova loses second game in a row and falls out of the updated Top 25 And 1 | CBSSports.com
The reigning national champions are 2-2 with home losses to Michigan and Furman

Villanova basketball: Furman upsets Wildcats in Pennsylvania | SI.com
The Wildcats also lost to Michigan at home on Nov. 14.

Villanova basketball gets upset by Furman at home | The Inquirer
The defending national champs lost in overtime for their second straight loss.

Villanova basketball reserve Dylan Painter to transfer | The Inquirer
The redshirt sophomore forward returned to competition this season after redshirting in 2017-18. Although he started in last week's season opener, he played just six minutes.

Duke favored in Maui, plus more Thanksgiving tournament picks | SI.com
This year's Thanksgiving week slate is loaded, starting with a Duke-led Maui Invitational. Who will take home the hardware in the five biggest tournaments?