Get to Know a Final Four Team: Villanova Wildcats

*Over the next couple days we’ll take an in-depth look at each Final Four team. We’ll see how they got here, their scouting report and some of their go-to plays. Most of these stats are thanks to Synergy and KenPom.* 

Team: Villanova Wildcats
Record: 34-4
Made Tournament: Won the Big East Tournament – automatic bid
Path: 87-61 win over No. 16 Radford, 81-58 win over No. 9 Alabama, 90-78 win over No. 5 West Virginia, 71-59 win over No. 3 Texas Tech
Leading Scorer: Jalen Brunson (19.2 ppg)
Leading Rebounder: Omari Spellman (7.8 rpg)
Starters: Jalen Brunson, Phil Booth, Mikal Bridges, Eric Paschall, Omari Spellman
Key Reserves: Donte DiVincenzo, Collin Gillespie, Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree
Head Coach: Jay Wright

Offense: The absolute most fun offense to watch in the country. Villanova is excellent on that side of the ball as the Wildcats rank 1st in adjusted efficiency on KenPom scoring 127.3 points per 100 possessions. According to Synergy, Villanova is in the 100th percentile nationally scoring 1.098 points per possessions. Simply put, they are the best offensive team in the country. What makes Nova so good offensively? There’s a few things here. First, they have six guys who can really just shoot the shit out of the ball and all six guys play starters minutes with Donte DiVincenzo being used like Manu Ginobili during the prime Spurs years. Second, they are extremely crisp with their passing. They like to make the extra pass to find an even more open guy. Third, they have multiple guys that can beat you off the dribble. That causes poor rotations, which leads to kick outs and open threes. But, what I love the most about this offense?

Nova inverts the offense. What I mean by that is instead of putting your traditional big in the post, playing through him with four shooters, Nova uses Brunson in the post. They get him there in a variety of ways. He’ll take the ball to the wing, fake a dribble handoff then back down his defender on a clear out. He’ll make a pass to the wing, cut and then post up. Or he’ll go through the dribble hand off, relocate and then post in an ISO set. At the same time, there’s motion on the other side so defenders have to stay awake on the weak side, which presents either confusion on switches or no weakside help on Brunson in the post. On post up possessions, including passes, Nova is scoring 1.105 points per possession – the best in the country. This possession you can see the fake handoff, post, kick out to Spellman. Moving Spellman to the perimeter does two things. First, it draws a rim protector  – in this case Sagaba Konate – away from the rim. Second, those guys aren’t used to playing away from the paint, giving Brunson even more options on the kickout.

Now, the other thing that makes this inverted offense work is how damn good Brunson is in the post. He has a drop step, fade away and little scoop shot. What he does extremely well in the post is gets his defender leaning one way. From there it’s over. It also doesn’t matter which way his defender leaves. Brunson can finish going towards the paint or going towards baseline. The moment he feels his defender leaning the one way he tends to hit a drop step or pivot into a half spin. It’s actually really fun to watch, mostly because posting up your guards is something that’s not done enough. While he does have that, Brunson will also play bully ball in the post. He gets low with his dribble, uses his lower body to create space and then goes and creates contact for separation. This play against Texas Tech shows what I’m talking about. Watch the moment he gets Evans leaning to the baseline thanks to that fake jab step.

The other key for Villanova is the ability to beat guys off the bounce. It’s why they are so good late in the shot clock. There’s not a panic that they have to get a shot off, instead still running their motion. But when you have Brunson, DiVincenzo, Booth and Bridges out there, those are four guys who can beat guys off the dribble. What’s crazy is Bridges – the best NBA prospect out of the 4 is actually the worst at breaking his guy down. That’s how talented this team is. But, the real difference is the fact that Paschall and especially Spellman can beat guys off the dribble. It also just shows the balance this team has. Everyone in the rotation is scoring over a point per possession besides DiVincenzo, who is at .996 points per possession. But, back to Spellman. This play stands out to me. He catches the ball 25 feet away from the hoop and against a good defender in Konate. He squares up and is able to beat Konate off the dribble. That’s Nova’s 5-man doing that from 25 feet. More importantly, he does it with ease and it looks natural. That’s a complete game changer for Nova because it essentially means you can’t trap anyone. You can’t send doubles to anyone. They can beat you at all 5 positions either shooting or driving.

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Defense: The big difference over this Big East Tournament and NCAA Tournament run has been Nova’s defense. This is one that was down around the 40 range on KenPom’s defensive efficiency ratings, but they are now 13th in the country. They run a switching man to man mostly in the halfcourt, but start possessions off with a 1-2-2 3/4 court press. What makes that defense even better is the fact Mikal Bridges is the one up top with his absurd length. The trap isn’t necessarily set up for extreme pressure, but to force opponents to think and get lazy with their offense. The moment they get past halfcourt, Nova goes into the switching man to man. Now, this tournament we’ve seen them run a 2-3 zone and this amoeba zone. In fact, against Texas Tech they ran all three defenses in the first half. Man was the primary one, but they ran the 2-3 zone for a handful of possessions and the amoeba zone for two. What I mean by the amoeba zone is it looks like a 2-3, but they are moving in a man setting. It’s not a true matchup zone, but it’s a completely different look than a regular zone.