Acaden Lewis controls game, leads to marquee Big East win for Willard, Villanova

Acaden Lewis conducted his first Big East game like a seasoned veteran, taking over as Villanova defeated Seton Hall. (Photo by Villanova Men’s Basketball)

By Sam Federman (@Sam_Federman)

NEWARK, N.J. — With all of the noise surrounding Kevin Willard’s return to the Big East and the Prudential Center, where he spent over a decade as the coach of the Seton Hall Pirates, it’s easy to forget just how important Tuesday’s game could be in the grand scheme of the 2025-26 college basketball season itself.

Villanova hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since Jay Wright retired following the run to the 2022 Final Four. The Wildcats didn’t have anything resembling a notable win coming into the stretch run at the end of December. Now, heading into Christmas, they have two. Villanova marched into Newark and led by as many as 20, handing Seton Hall just its second loss of the season. It stands – and likely for the year will stand – as a Quad 1, 64-56 victory for Willard’s team. In a Big East where opportunities for big wins will be sparse, seizing the first one is massive.

Because it took so long for Villanova to win a marquee game, it hasn’t quite popped up on the national radar yet. Despite a 9-2 record, with both losses coming away from home to top 10 teams (BYU and Michigan), it didn’t receive a single vote in the AP Poll.

“I like the fact that no one’s really talking about us, to be honest with you,” Willard said. “It gets you to keep them focused.”

There won’t be an AP Poll next week, but if Villanova defeats both DePaul and Butler, it will have a strong chance of being ranked in the January 5 poll, as it would be 12-2 at the time.

Seton Hall has controlled games with its pressure defense and Budd Clark’s playmaking. On Tuesday though, it was the Wildcats’ point guard who controlled the game. Freshman Acaden Lewis, who has started all 12 games for Villanova this year, passed his first Big East test. Just a minute into the game, he drew Clark’s second foul, drilling a three-pointer from the left wing in the process.

Losing Clark that early to foul trouble put the Pirates on the back foot, and allowed Lewis to attack on both ends of the floor. He finished with 16 points on 6-for-11 from the field, grabbing five rebounds, and picking up three steals as well. Even when Clark checked back in, Lewis and the Wildcats executed their game plan of turning him into a scorer, and his shots weren’t falling most of the night. The hay was in the barn by the time he scored his first points.

Meanwhile, Lewis used his speed and poise to beat defenders off the dribble, and get out in transition for his points.

“Acaden Lewis is special, man,” Willard said. “He’s had one bad college game so far in my eyes, and nobody played good at Michigan, we all had goose eggs.”

He went on to shower praise on redshirt freshman Matt Hodge as well, an athletic forward who had 12 points and six rebounds in the win.

“Those two freshmen are playing at an extremely high level,” Willard said.

Villanova’s 60 percent effective field goal rate was the highest mark that Seton Hall’s defense had allowed all year, but the Pirates still forced 18 turnovers. Not having Najai Hines in the middle forced head coach Shaheen Holloway to ride Stephon Payne more than usual, and it was not his best defensive performance of the season. For Holloway, the Pirates didn’t make it hard enough on Lewis.

“We didn’t do a good job putting him on his heels,” he said. “(We weren’t) pressuring them and making them think. I thought he was just playing free. When you play free like that, I think you play well.”

The Wildcats led by eight in the first half before Seton Hall scored six in a row spanning the two halves, seeming primed to take the lead at home. But Villanova’s defense buckled down, holding the Pirates without a point on six straight possessions on a 16-0 run.

“We played really good defense,” Willard said of the run. “I thought we got our hands active, we got a couple of steals. We got some good ball fakes (on offense) because they do run at you a lot, and we’re able to get in transition. You have to get in transition against them, if you don’t, you’re not going to beat them.”

Whether Willard wants them to or not, people will start taking notice of the Wildcats if they keep winning. He knows that his team has room to grow throughout the year as well, given that three starters are underclassmen. But even now, coming out of the first portion of the season sitting at 24th in KenPom and 21st in Wins Above Bubble, Villanova is in a better position than anybody in the college basketball sphere predicted coming into the year.

It was always going to be a memorable night for Willard to come back to the Prudential Center. He discussed seeing the same security guards who used to carry his kids when they were toddlers. But he’s writing a new chapter in his story at Villanova, and it is turning out to be a pretty good one.