SAN ANTONIO — There was Ed Pinckney in 1985, and there was Daniel Ochefu in 2016, and now Villanova believes Omari Spellman can be the big-man answer to their national championship prayers starting Saturday night against Kansas.
“Probably individually the most important part of our growth as a team,” coach Jay Wright said of Spellman. “Everybody else on our team is pretty experienced. And to get this far, you’ve got to have a good big man.”
Spellman, the redshirt freshman who 55 pounds and two years ago weighed an unwieldy 300 pounds, has resembled the good big man the Wildcats will need against Kansas monster Udoka Azubuike.
“I’ve been playing against Udoka since high school,” Spellman said. “He’s gotten better, but he’s still a really big, big dude. So you just have to try and move on him and make it as hard as possible to get to the deep post position that he likes, keep him off the offensive glass. As far as offensively, try and make it as hard for him as possible and move a lot, get to the offensive glass, use my quickness and try and get around him. He’s a great competitor and I’m going to have to go out there and compete with him.”
Spellman, the Big East Freshman of the Year, has raised his game in the tournament with 9-of-19 shooting from behind the arc and an 18-point, eight-rebound, three-block dominance against West Virginia.
“I just love to compete,” Spellman said. “It’s something that drives me and pushes me to be the best that I can be. It’s just gotten a lot more competitive, a lot more on the line, a lot higher stakes. I wouldn’t say it’s brought anything out in me, it’s just me wanting to be there for my teammates.”
At 6-foot 9 ¹/₂, 245 pounds, he’ll be giving up some size to the 7-foot, 280-pound Azubuike. But Spellman is a different player than he was at the start of the season.
“There was definitely a learning curve,” Spellman said. “I thought I would come in and be great. But it doesn’t work like that for everyone. I just had to take my lumps in the beginning.”
Not now. No more. Spellman may be a poet off the court, but he has become a killer on it.
“He came along as a freshman and learning to play the five spot was very big for him,” Villanova’s Phil Booth said. “We needed him to get better and he took the challenge and put that on his plate defensively and it made us a lot better team. He can block shots and rebound, which has made us so much better.”
