PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Villanova is a college basketball blueblood with a roster full of blue-chippers; Saint Mary’s is all about blue-collar. The Wildcats are a struggling second seed trying to find a way to repeat last year’s Final Four run; the Gaels are red-hot underdogs, coming off their first victory in the big dance in more than a half-century.
These polar opposites meet at 1:05 p.m. today for the right to go to the South Region semifinals on Thursday in Houston. The Wildcats get a chance to prove that their recent woes — losing five of seven coming into the big dance, and benching two starters for the beginning of their first-round overtime win over 15th-seeded Robert Morris — are mere bumps in their road, and not cracks in their foundation.
“There ain’t nothing wrong with our team. [Coach Jay Wright]’s teachings, it’s just within our family,” said senior point guard Scottie Reynolds, who was benched along with Corey Fisher for the start of the that 73-70 escape. “And it makes us better people [and] better players.”
COMPLETE MARCH MADNESS COVERAGE
Wright has also had to discipline Reggie Redding, Corey Stokes and Taylor King.
“I do understand what it looks like from the outside, so I can’t argue that. There are a lot of little things, but they’re little things we believe in,” said Wright, who admitted his team hasn’t played well since Feb. 8, and has had to frantically drill defense.
“It’s just not the way we want our teams to be yet, but they’re working at it. Things just don’t work out the way you want all the time, that’s what a season is. You like every season to be you play your best at the end. Sometimes you’re not playing the best at the end, but you find a way, and that’s what this group is doing right now.”
The guard-oriented Wildcats have struggled against big, experienced frontcourts, and that sums up Saint Mary’s 6-foot-11 senior Omar Samhan. He’s averaging 21.2 points and 11.0 boards, and wore out Richmond for 29 points and 12 boards in the Gaels’ 80-71 opening win, when they dominated off the glass, 40-17.
“I knew we weren’t favored, but apparently nobody expected us to win. I’ve had tons of e-mails and texts: ‘I can’t believe you won, you messed up my bracket but that’s great.’ And that’s from my mom, so I knew we didn’t have a lot of believers,” joked Samhan, who enrolled at St. Mary’s a blubbery 310 pounds and shed 60 through hard work that epitomizes the Gaels.
“Someone was doing a dunk contest and we were joking we wish we could. We can’t dunk,” Samhan said. “We take pride in being a blue-collar team, playing hard. That’s the measure you can’t put on paper, how bad people want [it], heart, determination; this team has a lot of it. We don’t have guys jumping 40 inches in the air, but we have guys that’ll dive face-first to get a ball.”
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The Midwest Region game, following Villanova-St. Mary’s, is No. 6 Tennessee vs. No. 14 Ohio, the surprise 97-83 first-round winner over third-seeded Georgetown.
Seton Hall law dean Pat Hobbs, overseeing basketball, was in town, while several shortlist candidates for the vacant Pirates coaching job were courtside at the Dunkin Donuts Center.
Robert Morris’ Mike Rice and Richmond’s Chris Mooney were coaching and former Providence and Iona coach Tim Welsh (very interested, according to sources) was doing TV work.