Villanova’s shooting from distance has them built to go the distance

No. 1 seed Villanova pretty handily knocked off No. 16 Radford Thursday afternoon, 87-61, and the Wildcats looked comfortable and accurate in their first round win. Standout guard Jalen Brunson led all scorers with 16 points, while a full five other ‘Nova guys went off for double digits. This was a classic opening round thrashing.

What feels different about Villanova’s round of 64 win this year over and against last year’s is the Wildcats’ impressive performance from three point range. Consider this.

The defending champs of 2016’s Big Dance topped Mount St. Mary’s in 2017’s first round, 76-56, but they failed out in the second round to No. 8 Wisconsin, 65-62. Across both of those games, the Wildcats shot just 11-of-33 from downtown, just 33 percent.

In the Cats’ opening round bout with Radford on Thursday, they shot 14-of-27 from range, a nearly 52 percent success rate. On the year, Villanova is shooting 40.1 percent from deep. ‘Nova’s 388 made threes on the year ranked them second in the country heading into the tournament.

After they ripped off a piping hot shooting show in the first round, they made something like college basketball history.

What’s been particularly impressive for ‘Nova this year is Mikal Bridges’ emergence as a long-range sniper. Last season, Bridges attempted 112 treys in total. This season, he has nearly doubled that output with 209 attempts.

His accuracy improved, as well: he grew from a 39-percent shooter from outside to a 43 percent shooter in just one calendar year. That’s significant, especially given the one-year uptick in weight-load beyond the arc. He’s long and smooth, with handles tight enough to trash opponents in the paint, but his expansion out beyond the paint has added an entirely deadly element to Villanova’s offensive attack.

Also, the Wildcats finally have a big man inside again.

Omari Spellman has beefed up an already effective offensive platoon for Jay Wright’s club. The freshman forward is listed at 6’9, 260 lbs., and he’s averaging just north of 10 points per game on 28 minutes of production.

With the presence of Spellman, Villanova’s ability to house an inside-out to-and-fro returns the Wildcats to their 2016 form, when large post man Daniel Ochefu was holding down 11 points per outing and commanding such a strong inside presence that Villanova’s outside game opened up immensely. Never forget that the Wildcats won the 2016 national championship on a last-second three pointer from the right elbow, after all.

Here, then, is why Villanova should be one of the putative favorites to carry this thing all the way through. They’re balanced, they’re shooting well, and they have a host of enormously talented players that could explode on any given night.