The Villanova Wildcats are the Top Team in Country and Philadelphia’s Big Five

PHILADELPHIA – For all that Villanova basketball has already accomplished this season, the Wildcats have been flying under the radar. When the Cats emerged as the No. 1 team in both the AP and Coaches polls Monday, it coincided with the day after Eagles’ quarterback Carson Wentz tore his ACL during a win over the Los Angeles Rams to clinch the NFL’s Eastern Division championship.

“It was a classic,” Wright said. I was even a little bit impressed when the polls came out. It’s Philly. We love basketball. But there’s something different about the Eagles. They are a religion in this town. I remember one of the headlines in the papers were something like “Black Monday” and the sports page was done in black.”

But college basketball and the Big 5 also have a place close to the hearts of Philadelphia sports fans. Every member of the Big 5 has been to at least one NCAA final four and Villanova (1985 and 2016) and La Salle (1954) have won national championships. And the city series games between the Wildcats, Explorers, Temple, Penn and St. Joe’s have been traditionally competitive.

But Villanova is threatening to change the dynamics with their dominance.

The Wildcats defeated Temple, 87-67, Wednesday night in front of a sell out crows at the Liacouras Center to win their fifth consecutive City Series championship. Villanova had disposed of Penn, 90-62, St. Joseph’s (94-53) and La Salle (76-67) earlier in the season. Their margin of victory in those games was 25 points and the Cats have beaten arch rival St. Joseph’s by an average of 30 points over the last five seasons.

The No.1 ranked Wildcats (11-0) have won a record 22 consecutive Big 5 games in the round robin competition. Back in the golden era of the Big 5 from 1962 through 1972, before college recruiting became an arms race for the rich and powerful and all five schools were attracting the best local talent from the Philadelphia Public and Catholic Leagues, a Big 5 championship was worth as much if not more than a conference tittle because of the bragging rights involved.

But the games are no longer played in a neutral site at the Palestra and the gap between Villanova and the rest of the city is growing wider. If it doesn’t close soon, the storied tradition could die and we could start hearing previously unthinkable talk of a Big 5 tournament again.

“I know this sounds simple, but we have had a run here of four or five years with really good players,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “We’ve had very very good players who have remained in the program. You can lose that anytime if some guys leave early, and then you have a couple young guys. We’ve had outstanding players over a run. I pray to God they keep coming. That’s really the answer in coaching.”

There were 21 NBA scouts in attendance to take a closer look at Villanova’s talent.

Four players on the current team, 6-9 red shirt freshman Omari Spellman, 6-7 red shirt junior wing Mikal Bridges, 6-5 red shirt sophomore guard Donte Divincenzo and 6-1 junior point guard Jalen Brunson– should be cashing an NBA check, perhaps as soon as next season.

Brunson, whose father Rick played for Temple during the John Chaney glory years, sucked all of the oxygen out of the building early when he scored 8 of his team’s first 12 points as the Cats raced to a 25-5 lead. He had 22 by half when Villanova increased its margin to 46-29 and finished with a career high 31 points on 10 of 16 shooting with six threes. It was many in attendance observation that it probably wasn’t a wise decision for Temple fans to trash talk at him in warm ups because he chose the Main Line over N. Broad St.

Brunson is capable of this type of performance every night, but Wright stresses balance on offense. But Wright needed Brunson to be more aggressive when it became apparent guard Phil Booth, who was in bed all day with a virus and not score field goal in 25 minutes, would be limited. “I just try to be aggressive, try to be a killer. Today was just one of those games where I got it going, kept shooting the ball. it kept going in.”’

Spellman has a break out game with a career high 27 points on 11 of 14 shooting with eight rebounds, adding a new dimension when he knocked down four threes. And the Cats’ defensive versatility made it difficult for other teams.

“Villanova is a team that just goes on some killer runs,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy admitted. ‘They did that obviously in the first half, which hurt us greatly. We had gotten it back to seven in the first half, and then they go on like a 10-0 that just kind of spaces them again. You can’t make a mistake and when you do they take full advantage of it.’

The Cats have eight days off before their next game Dec. 22 at Hofstra in Nassau Coliseum.

It is hard to say when Villanova will lose again in the city.