Villanova starts the season with a bad loss, dropping this one 74-72 to Notre Dame. The Wildcats had countless chances to put the game out of reach, but repeated turnovers, bad possessions and missed free throws let the Fighting Irish hang around. In the end, Elijah Crawford’s mid-range pullup went around and out, leading to two more Notre Dame free throws to ice the game.
On the positive side, there’s a lot of film for Kevin Willard to use for the rest of the season. Villanova had 20 turnovers on the day, with 15 coming in the first half. Prior to Crawford’s four free throws late, the team was 9/14 (64.3%). The transfer from Illinois-Chicago was the only one to show up down the stretch, but even he had a critical foul on a Notre Dame three-point attempt. Understanding that this was the first game of the season (and first one with Kwame Evans Jr. in general), this was far too sloppy of a performance for the Wildcats.
Notre Dame won the game despite shooting 35.4% from the floor. This was due in large part to the aforementioned 20 turnovers, as well as nine more offensive rebounds. This cannot happen, especially against a team that was picked to finish 16th in an 18-team ACC.
The stat sheet shows well for Tyler Perkins (minus the free throws), but even the veteran made crucial mistakes this game and eventually fouled out. Devin Royal, who scored over 20 points in all three exhibition outings, did not make a field goal in this one.
There was a brief stretch for Adam Oumiddoch in the first where he scored seven points in a short span. Jake Fiegen had a quality game overall with 11 points and five rebounds on 4/8 from the floor and 3/7 from three. But outside of that, there’s not a lot of good to come out of today. This loss will likely be a Quad-2 loss when it comes down to it, so it’s not a backbreaker in that sense. But for the sake of the season as a whole, this better be the low point. Villanova gets a chance to rebound on Friday against Holy Cross.