CHICAGO – Learning to make do without a key player is nothing new for Villanova. But it’s better for the Wildcats if they don’t have to, which now appears to be the case.
“We look at it like we got our guy back,” relieved coach Jay Wright said yesterday after practice.
The guy is guard Mike Nardi, who put in a cameo appearance last week in the Big East Tournament and should be far more effective and certainly more available tonight when Villanova (22-10) faces Kentucky (21-11) in a first-round West Region game at the United Center.
This meeting of teams that share the same nickname and near-identical seedings (Kentucky is No. 8, Villanova No. 9) figures to be tight and Nardi’s presence can only help the team from Philly’s Main Line. Last week at the Garden, Nardi played only 10 inconsequential minutes in two Big East tournament games after sustaining sprains to his left calf and ankle in the March 3 regular-season finale against Syracuse. Before the injuries, Nardi started all 30 games in the backcourt alongside freshman sensation Scottie Reynolds, providing heady play in addition to the tangible effects of his 12-point scoring average and 3.9 assists per game.
Prior to arriving here, Nardi tried to push himself during a practice back in Philadelphia but reportedly re-aggravated the injury.
“The other day I just got tangled up a little bit and took a couple of plays off,” Nardi said. “It wasn’t anything serious. I’m obviously not 100 percent, but feeling good. I should be fine. It’s kind of like a game-time decision.”
That should ease some of the burden heaped on Reynolds, who was named the Big East Rookie of the Year. He was second on the team in scoring (14.5 points) to Brooklyn’s Curtis Sumpter (17.3). The main worry for Villanova’s defense is dealing with 6-11 center Randolph Morris, who leads Kentucky in scoring (15.8) and rebounding (7.7).
A year ago, Villanova was riding high entering the tourney, buoyed by the first No. 1 seed in school history, and an undersized four-guard outfit made it all the way to the Elite Eight before falling to eventual-champion Florida. Sumpter could not join in the fun, as a second anterior cruciate ligament tear in his left knee forced him to miss the entire season.
Seven months earlier, the first tear came in Villanova’s first-round NCAA tournament victory over Florida in Nashville, Sumpter’s first – and as it turned out, last – tourney appearance until he hits the court tonight.
“He understands this is his last hurrah and the team is counting on him and he seems to be a very mature young man,” Kentucky coach Tubby Smith said. “Even though Scottie Reynolds has stepped up, [Sumpter] is the guy who I think is really the glue to their team because he seems to be a very serious-minded player. It seems like he’s playing with a little more pep in his step because of the urgency you have to play this time of year.”
Knocking off Lexington’s Wildcats this early in the tourney is not a common occurrence.
Kentucky has won a first-round game for 15 consecutive years, the longest streak in the nation (Duke is next at 10 years). Saddled with what computes to the toughest schedule in the country, Kentucky finished 9-7 in the Southeast Conference and Smith was under such fire this season that athletic director Mitch Barnhart recently felt the need to issue a vote of confidence for the head coach who restored glory down in Lexington with the 1998 National Championship in his very first year at Kentucky.
Smith hasn’t been back to a Final Four.
“This is a great team we’re playing,” Wright said. “We heard this isn’t a typical Kentucky team. Well, it is.”
