Perhaps Villanova bit off a bit more than it could chew in scheduling a third game in four nights with less than 48 hours of prep time. Ultimately, it was probably the best decision considering the uncertainty hanging over the season, the desire of all programs to get to the magic number of 13 games to be eligible for the NCAA tournament as quickly as possible, and the fact that the team was in a secure environment that had by all accounts done a fantastic job in terms of safety. Still, on Saturday night Villanova looked every bit like a team that was playing its third game in four nights in an 81-73 overtime loss to Virginia Tech.

Right from the get-go, the Wildcats looked out of sync. The offense was struggling mightily, with Collin Gillespie being the only ‘Cat that could get anything going. The team continued to struggle guarding the dribble and Virginia Tech took advantage with baskets in the paint. The Wildcats just looked a step slow, and as a result the Hokies shot 52% in the first half and out-rebounded the ‘Cats 15-12. Gillespie scored 18 points in the half while the rest of the Wildcats managed to combine for just 11 points. Despite all of this, ‘Nova was able to erase an eight-point Virginia Tech lead and head into the break tied at 29.

While Gillespie had a good offensive game with 25 points, he gave credit to Virginia Tech for disrupting Villanova offensively. “They did a good job of guarding ball screens and guarding straight up,” Gillespie said. “They just did a good job all night of hard hedging, being in help, having guys attack us and being in good position on the defensive end.”

The teams played pretty evenly for the first few minutes of the second half, but then some other Wildcats got going offensively, most notably Caleb Daniels, and the ‘Cats ripped off a 14-2 run over about six minutes to take a 12-point lead with 8:48 to go. The ‘Cats had things rolling a little bit and it looked like they were prepared to run away with things.

Instead, an 8-0 push from Virginia Tech cut the lead back to four in just over two minutes of action as ‘Nova lost 3-point shooters on consecutive possessions. ‘Nova briefly settled things, but Tech continued to whittle away, getting within one with 1:44 to go. This set the stage for a frustrating and bizarre finish.

Jay Wright highlighted some of what went wrong after establishing that 12-point lead. “That’s just one of things, the little things, how you play with the lead. You’ve gotta continue to stick to the game plan,” Wright said. “I think after that we missed some assignments. We just got sloppy defensively. And the same thing offensively. I thought we just took a couple bad shots, didn’t make the extra pass. So those little things you learn that when you have a lead and you’re playing against a good team, you gotta play every possession to the end.”

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl pushed the lead back to three with a layup with 1:16 to go. On the ensuing possession, Tech missed the front end of a one-and-one after grabbing an offensive rebound and Jermaine Samuels was fouled with 30 seconds to go. He missed the front end of the one-and-one, and the following Virginia Tech possession only added to the frustration. The ‘Cats forced a miss with 26 seconds left but proceeded to give up three offensive rebounds before conceding a foul with just 12 seconds left. Tech converted both free throws cutting the lead to one. Then things got really crazy.

Justin Moore was fouled with 10 seconds to go. He missed the front end of a one-and-one, the third front end the Wildcats missed in the final three minutes. However, the game log shows that the foul was actually Virginia Tech’s 10th team foul, meaning Villanova should have been in the double bonus and Moore should have been awarded two free throws. Somehow, no one noticed, and play proceeded. Virginia Tech scored on a layup with just over a second to go and was also fouled, converting the free throw for a two-point lead. Villanova appeared to be dead in the water. But the craziness wasn’t over.

Villanova executed a play screening the player guarding the inbounds passer, and Justin Moore was run over, drawing a whistle. From here, confusion ensued. It appeared the official had called an offensive foul on Moore, which would have effectively ended the game. After some talk, it was concluded that the foul had been called on Virginia Tech and that the official had simply signaled the wrong way. Moore was given two free throws, which he knocked down to tie the game. A halfcourt heave from Tech missed, and the game headed to overtime.

Unfortunately, the ‘Cats were never really competitive in overtime. The Hokies had a five-point lead just over a minute into the extra period, and ‘Nova would never recover.

There’s clearly a lot to take in here, all points of frustration for ‘Nova. There was the 12-point lead that evaporated. There was the three missed front ends, including two in the last 30 seconds of regulation. There was the fact that the last of those missed front ends should have actually resulted in a second shot because Villanova was in the double bonus. And there were the three offensive rebounds on a single possession. If pretty much any of those things go the other way, ‘Nova likely puts the game away and earns the victory.

As much as the miscues and the officiating mistake late hurt and cost Villanova a chance to put the game away, Virginia Tech played a really good game and the frustrating final minute or so shouldn’t take away from the Hokies’ performance. The Wildcats acknowledged as much after the game. “I think they did a great job executing all game, they ran their sets really well and they guarded, and we were able to get a few good shots but then other possessions we got a little stagnant,” Gillespie said. “We just gotta learn how to play Villanova basketball for 40 minutes and try to finish games.”

His coach echoed those sentiments. “I want to congratulate Virginia Tech, just a great game, I really like their team, they’re really tough, really physical, well-coached,” Wright said. “They were just a better team tonight. We did a lot of little things wrong, but I think it was because of the little things they did right. Credit to them. They just played better than us tonight.”

As for those little things he felt his team did wrong, Wright offered these specifics. “Defensively getting beat off the dribble, offensively not making the extra pass, free throw shooting, offensive execution, defensive execution,” Wright said. “A lot of little things. And you gotta give them credit, some of the things they did offensively, posted up really strong better than we defended in the post, defensively being really physical in the pick and roll defense and us not attacking it. But we’ll learn a lot form this game.”

Learning was another theme of the post game press conference. “This was good for us, it was a learning experience, played a great team in Virginia Tech so our guys will learn from it, we’ll go back and watch film, practice more and be able to learn and grow from this,” Gillespie said.

Despite the frustrating result, Wright wouldn’t change the decision to take the game. “We knew it was gonna be tough,” Wright’s said. “But that’s what we wanna do at this time of the season. We want to play good teams, we wanna learn. We don’t want to lose, but we’re not afraid to. This will help us. These are the kind of teams you’re gonna play in the NCAA Tournament.”

While they obviously would have preferred the win, and the way things went down was frustrating, the message after the game was that this is going to be good for the team going forward.

“It was good for us,” Wright said. “This is a good game for us. Early in the year we played three really good teams. And because Virginia Tech did so many things well execution-wise, they exposed us and that’s how young guys learn unfortunately. I look at this as a positive. We got a great experience here against a really good team.”

Collin Gillespie: 25 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals
Caleb Daniels: 17 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl: 14 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block
Justin Moore: 7 points, four rebounds, 1 assist
Jermaine Samuels: 2 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists
Cole Swider: 8 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block