The Full 40: A Villanova Basketball Podcast

The Knicks.

Josh Hart hates analytics: "They're lamp posts to a drunk person. You can lean on them, but it won't get you home" KAT couldn't believe what he said 🤣🤣🤣

Unorthodox is a word

One of the greats

Torvik, Haslametrics, KenPom

Penn, Temple, Villanova

@HurleyMania @CoachJayWright @DanaONeilWriter

@CoachJayWright @DanaONeilWriter @thefull40

I like it !!!

Absolutely insane he came back when he was pretty safely top 20

thats huge

So our PG room gets another answer here with Simmons, and it’s interesting how Willard is building this out. Simmons is all of 5’10”, but he’s an absolute jitterbug with the ball in his hands. Keeps it on a string, probes defenses but doesn't attack the rim at his size but has a very lethal mid-range game, shooting about 45% from 2. Simmons has really good footwork getting into his spots, especially his step-back. He’s a high-level shooter, around 40% from three on 5 attempts per game, and is elite from the line (hopefully free throws are not a problem for this team). One thing is clear is that Willard is prioritizing guards who can thrive out of ball screen actions Where things get a bit tricky is when you dig deeper. At his size, he’s going to get targeted defensively, and there’s not a ton you can do to hide that consistently. Offensively, he’s not a great finisher at the rim, hovering around 47%, so a lot of his value is tied up in shot-making rather than pressure at the rim. He also doesn’t get to the line a ton, even tho he converts at an elite level. The interesting part is the lineup flexibility. Between him and Crawford, either could start, with the other as the first guard off the bench, but I'd imagine Simmons is the bench guard. He can play on or off the ball, which lets him slot next to Crawford or Perkins pretty cleanly. And when you factor in bigger wings/bigs like Royal and Evans, you can start to see how we might try to cover for him defensively. Overall, it’s a good pickup. He’s been productive against top-100 teams with strong usage and efficiency, and he adds much-needed shooting. The tradeoff is clear, though, you’re betting on offensive pop translating, while mitigating the size on the other end.

@PeterPanClam Hey Pete I’m not arguing with you. I’ve watched plenty of Kwame Evans I’ve been watching him for 3 years now. I’m not arguing that he’s not a 5. I’m saying what we’ve reported that we want him to do. If you even look back in the comment history you can see I call Evans a 5.

Assuming we get the rumored second PG. the last spot left to fill is the 5. Adding royal and Evans I think we can take some swings here. I’d love to see us go for a versatile 5 that can help us space the floor and then another guy who can come off the bench and rebound and block shots for 15 minutes. That’s how I’d finish off the roster

@PeterPanClam I don’t disagree with you, I’m pretty sure I’ve even said on air that I view Evans as 5. But if he asked to play the 4 when he signed with us, I assume that’s what the team will try and allow him to do.

@PeterPanClam Could we have line ups with him at the 5 of course we could and I believe we should but I’m just going off what we’ve seen has been said.

@PeterPanClam It’s been pretty well documented that we want him to play the 4 and he wants to play the 4.