PITTSBURGH – The Blue Hens will stride into college basketball paradise on Thursday.
They’ll get on the basketball court inside the PPG Paints Arena for a brisk practice session lasting less than an hour, getting a feel for the surroundings they’ll encounter Friday.
Certainly, it’ll be nothing like the actual environs that await them in their first-round NCAA Tournament game. Those will include players in Villanova uniforms aiming to thwart whatever Delaware does while trying to carve their own path to a third national title in seven years.
It’ll be an extremely demanding and, at times, brutal challenge, for all the nation to see, right there on the CBS television network. And, afterward, there’s a chance it may not have seemed so heavenly.
But there’s no place else the 15th-seeded Blue Hens would rather be, no other task they’d prefer to encounter. And they should not flinch at the test they face, or the long odds that greet them.
Those, of course, happen to be immense.
“That’s why they play the game,” said Delaware red-shirt freshman Jyare Davis, the Sanford School graduate who was CAA rookie of the year and tournament MVP. “… We’re gonna all believe. I know there’s 17 guys in that locker room and a whole coaching staff that is gonna believe in us and that’s all that really matters for us.”
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Delaware is 0-15 all-time against second-seeded Villanova, the Philadelphia Big Five and Big East giant. Only four of those games have been decided by single digits, including their last meeting, a 78-70 Wildcats win Dec. 14, 2019, in Newark, New Jersey.
The Blue Hens’ ability to stay close that day did show the value of playing on a neutral court, as they will Friday. Fans from the Ohio State-Loyola Chicago winner in the game preceding Delaware-Villanova will boisterously root for the Blue Hens to pull the upset, another benefit, since the two victors collide Sunday.
Players and coaches from Delaware are about as familiar with Villanova as they could be with an opponent not in their league. The Wildcats are, after all, must-see TV.
Delaware does have a former Villanova player in Dylan Painter, a coach in Martin Ingelsby with extensive family ties and other players with regional Pennsylvania knowledge, such as West Chester’s Andrew Carr and Haverford’s Jammer Nelson Jr., adding to that familiarity.
“He knows everything we do,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said of Ingelsby, who was a long-time assistant at Notre Dame when the Irish were Villanova’s Big East rivals.
Every little bit helps, right?
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“We’ve got a tough opponent,” said Wright, whose days battling the Hens go back to when he was Hofstra coach from 1994-2001, “because they have an experienced team, they know us well, they’ve got one of our former players and they’ve got a coach who knows the Villanova program really well. As usual, you’re gonna play a tough team in the NCAA Tournament.”
Delaware is 0-34 all-time against nationally ranked opponents and Villanova arrives sitting at No. 6 in the AP poll.
The Blue Hens are also 0-5 in their previous NCAA excursions.
But there is one bit of history hinting at positive possibilities for Delaware.
The No. 15 seed has won nine games against the No. 2 seed in 144 tries since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
One of those was just last year when Oral Roberts beat Ohio State 75-72. It’s actually happened five times in the last nine NCAA tournaments.
“We know it’s gonna be a heck of a challenge against these guys,” Ingelsby said, “but we’ll be ready to roll.”
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Delaware has to overcome a talent gap that features first-team All-Big East guard Collin Gillespie and second-team pick Justin Moore.
But the Hens peaked during the CAA Tournament, where inspired defense and aggressive rebounding keyed wins over higher seeds Drexel, Towson and UNC-Wilmington.
“I have watched them,” Wright said of Delaware. “They’re really good. They’re experienced. They’re older guys and they’ve been together for a while. They fought their way through the league. They were up there, but they really played their best basketball at the end.”
Delaware will have to be way better Friday to keep it close and continue its miraculous March.
Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.
