Long before Jalen Brunson brought the Nova to the New York Knicks, Villanova basketball crafted an image that would come to define its program.
It started in the mid-2000s just as Jay Wright was putting his thumbprint on college basketball and started, really, by accident. Forward Curtis Sumpter tore his ACL and big man Jason Fraser battled chronic knee injuries, forcing Wright to roll out a four-guard offense featuring Randy Foye, Allan Ray, Mike Nardi and Kyle Lowry.
The four-out, one-in style would become Wright and the Wildcats’ calling card, and the quartet would set a standard of excellence that would thread its way through Villanova guards, from those four to Scottie Reynolds to Corey Fisher to Ryan Arcidiacono and ultimately, to Brunson.
Of them all, Lowry – who announced he would retire after signing a one-day contract with the Toronto Raptors – was the hard-scrabble, posting up, booty-balling archetype.
Recruited to Villanova because, in Wright’s own words, he needed a hard ass, Lowry would in his two college years redirect the Wildcats’ trajectory under the coach and then take that same hard-ass mentality to the league. In a 20-year pro career, he won an Olympic gold medal and an NBA championship by dishing out assists, bulldozing his way to the hoop and, of all things, turning taking a charge into an art form.
