After waxing Rutgers 70-49 Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tournament's first round, Villanova's coach Jay Wright took time to talk about his team's dominant showing.
He couldn't help but talk about his star junior guard Maalik Wayns, who after suffering an MCL sprain a few weeks ago, has come back incredibly strong.
" Just awesome. Great composure all night long," said Wright.
"A couple plays where he gets a little excited, but he really did a great job. And I really think Ty Johnson did a great job. He gives great defensive intensity on their guards. They're small guards for us, as you know, we play bigger, that's tough for us, so we had to go small with Ty. He did a really good job."
Wayns led the charge from a motivated Wildcats team. After trailing by four to end the first half, Villanova destroyed he Scarlet Knights, outscoring them 40-15 in the final 20 minutes. He scored 28 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists.
Wayns feels like the tournament is a fresh start for his team after such a disappointing regular season.
"I think that's definitely how we're looking at it. Anything that happened, and we're good enough, we've got everybody back now, everybody has been practicing together. We had some great practices. Our young guys are getting more comfortable, guys getting more healthy. If we keep playing the way we're playing and defending, everything takes care of itself. "
For the entire transcript, click here.
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