There’s been a lot of talk about the Wildcats’ frontcourt, especially the center position, and rightfully so. As of now, the nine-man roster consists of only Oregon transfer Kwame Evans Jr., redshirt freshman Nico Onyekwere (reported), Matt Hodge (ACL recovery) and Ohio State transfer Devin Royal, who at 6’6” is an undersized forward. Tyler Perkins also factors into that equation, but at 6’4” it would be ideal to not have to play him as much at the forward spots. There’s clearly more work to do there. With that said, the guard position has been treated like it’s fully covered. Should that be how it is viewed?
As a recap, the current roster has the following for backcourt players:
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The aforementioned Tyler Perkins
Illinois-Chicago transfer Elijah Crawford
St. Bonaventure transfer Darryl “Buddy” Simmons II
Incoming freshman Adam Oumiddoch
Cornell transfer Jake Fiegen
Crawford projects as the starting point guard next year, having averaged 14.1 points and 4.9 assists per game for the Flames in his sophomore season. The guard played his freshman year for BYU and was a four-star recruit coming out of high school. Who will slot in next to him is dependent upon what happens at the center position, but assuming Evans Jr. is the starting power forward, Perkins is likely to move to his more natural fit as a shooting guard in his senior season.
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Crawford averaged 26 minutes per game a season ago, while Perkins averaged 30. As noted, not all 30 of those would be at shooting guard. How many of those are allotted at small forward will depend on two key factors: Hodge’s health and Evans’ role. If, say, a 7’3” Italian big man makes his way to the Main Line, that would have Evans Jr. playing a lot more power forward. And if Hodge is able to come back even close to the timeline that Kevin Willard gave previously (October), all of the minutes at the power forward will be given to Evans Jr., Hodge and Royal. In that scenario, Royal would spend most of his minutes at small forward.
This is all to say that 80 minutes in the backcourt will be split amongst Crawford, Simmons II, Fiegen, Oumiddoch and at least 10-15 minutes of Tyler Perkins at the two. For this projection, we will err on the side of caution and put Perkins down for 15 minutes. Combining that with a 25-minute projection for Crawford leaves 40 minutes for three players. I’m not sure how Willard plans to juggle all of that, but that’s why he’s paid the big bucks. It will be easier early on, assuming Hodge is at least on a minutes restriction to start. But as the season progresses, and rotations tend to shrink, it will be on Willard to make sure everyone is getting the minutes that they deserve. Simmons II and Fiegen averaged 35 and 26 minutes per contest last season, a number that will assuredly go down for both. But they are not coming to Villanova to sit on the bench all game. Willard himself has acknowledged that you don’t recruit freshmen if they aren’t going to play, and that ideal should apply to Oumiddoch, especially given his resume to this point.
In answering the initial question: Yes, I believe Villanova is set in the backcourt. There probably needs to be another addition for practice depth, and perhaps that’s a developmental freshman or a senior looking for a paycheck, but it’s doubtful that player factors into the rotation given what’s already on the roster. Willard has done a great job with the guard group, even if it wasn’t necessarily his initial plan.
