March 16, 2011

That is not to say, however, that Villanova are not still guard-based. They are. The Wildcats usually run the three guard lineup of Maalik Wayns, Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes, which has been both their strength and their weakness. Fisher and Wayns have a lot in common, as reflected by their pretty bloody identical statistics. Both are born of the playground; quick, small, fearless guards with tight handles and plenty of flair, but prone to mistakes, not great around the basket, and underwhelming shooters (occasional 105 point performance notwithstanding), due in no small part to bad shot selection and the apparent need to unnecessarily fall away all the time. Both take too many "hero" shots at times, but, to give them their dues, both have improved as decision makers and leaders, and play aggressive, interested defense. However, even with said improvements, there's a lot of duplication there, and neither is truly a point guard. Meanwhile, Stokes is the shooter of the trio, and his career at Villanova so far has been spent mainly catching and shooting, although he has slightly diversified that game as he's aged, adding the ability to shoot off the dribble. For the most part, though, he remains a catch and shoot player. He is underwhelming defensively, not aggressive in looking for his shot, is frankly rather passive, not a ball handler, and frankly not all that efficient for a 43% three point shooter.

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