Big East Teleconference: Wildcats' leaders are stepping up

Today at 11:16am, Villanova Wildcats` coach Jay Wright spoke for a few minutes at the Big East Teleconference. He specifically talked about the win over Creighton, the game ahead vs. DePaul, and the play of Ryan Arcidiacono and JayVaughn Pinkston.

Simply put, Wright loved the way his team "turned it around" against the Bluejays that, while starting a very different five players than Sunday, easily handled the `Cats twice last season. Austin Chatman, the lone returning senior for CU, had 9 points on 3-14 (1-7) shooting with only 1 assist.

In last year's campaigns he had 10 and 8 assists, respectfully, when he took on less of a scorer's role.

Jay is looking at `Nova's win over DePaul on January 10th as more of a fluke. "Coming in, they were hot," he said of the hype the Blue Demons had after starting 3-0 in conference play after losing six straight. "They kind of looked, in that game, like we did against Georgetown. They were out of sync, we were just hot." To sum it up, Wright put "We're not really taking much from that game. We're looking more at how they are playing now than how they were playing back then"

Something unsettling from the game was Daniel Ochefu and Pinkston only having 15 points combined, and only outrebounding DePaul by two.

Wright agreed he'd "like to getting him going a little bit" when asked about JVP's recent struggles, however he's been thrilled with what he has been doing off the statsheet. "He's just been such an unselfish player. He's been our best defensive player, he's been screening extremely well. He's guarding all five positions. But we would like to get him going.

Pinkston has only reached double-digit points in two conference games, reaching a max of 13 vs. Butler. He averages just 4.6 RPG and committed a season-high six turnovers against Georgetown. The big man really needs to get back to his former self is the team looks to make a late run in March.

Arch, on the other hand, is right where the teams needs him.

The junior point guard is averaging 13 PPG in his last 5 games on 53.7% shooting from the floor. To go along with his 3.2 APG, Wright is ecstatic with what Ryan has been able to accomplish. "Arch is able to preceive what we need in a game. In the Georgetown game we were struggling and he stepped up to try to pick us up. There's nights where he sees other guys have it going and he'll give them the ball."

Coach Wright ended his Arch thoughts by exalting his leadership capabilities: "It's really beneficial for us to have a guy like him to get people the ball when they're hot, but when team needs you to carry them, they will. He's got the confidence to do both right now."

Villanova takes the road to face DePaul on Saturday at 2:00pm. Coverage is on Fox Sports 1.