Villanova is getting ready to play its first game without forward Matt Hodge.
The 6-foot-8 redshirt freshman suffered a torn ACL against St. John’s on Saturday night. The Wildcats will take on DePaul in Chicago and will do so with a new-look lineup.
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“It just really stinks that the kid was going to be able to play in his first Big East tournament, his first NCAA Tournament,” Willard said on Tuesday via Jeff Neiburg of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Hodge was averaging 9.2 points and 3.6 rebounds per game while shooting 45.2% from the field and 36.8% from three-point range prior to his injury. The likely candidate to replace Hodge is sophomore Malachi Palmer, who played a career-high 29 minutes against St. John’s.
“Obviously not having Matty stinks, but Malachi has played really well,” Willard said. “It does hurt us, but it’s not catastrophic.”
The Wildcats have been using Palmer off the bench, along with Devin Askew who is a leading candidate for the Sixth Man of the Year award in the Big East. With Hodge out of the mix, there will have to be some adjusting and this could take us back to the old days of Villanova basketball.
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Willard could opt to play a small lineup at times with four guards spread out across the perimeter. This could include Acaden Lewis and Tyler Perkins with either Askew or Palmer joining Bryce Lindsay — and of course, Duke Brennan in the middle.
Freshman big man Braden Pierce has also been seeing an increase in minutes to back up Brennan. He will continue to see minutes, but if Willard wants to go big, Pierce could take over that forward role at time that Hodge played.
There are plenty of different ways that Willard could go without Hodge and we will get the first look on Wednesday night. There are two games remaining on the regular-season schedule for Willard to play around with different options before entering the Big East Tournament and likely, the NCAA Tournament.
Wrapped up in the plans for the rest of the season, Willard shared that he expects Hodge to be back around October following an eight-month recovery process.
“We’re planning on Matt playing for us next year,” Willard said.
