Does the new era of the Arcidiacono name really have what it takes to be a Wildcat?

By Thomas Zaffalon, Sports Writer

VILLANOVA, PA - Since the Villanova Wildcats' 2016 National Champion campaign, there has been one name that has held a special place in the hearts of the Wildcat faithful. That name is Ryan Arcidiacono, the current point guard for the Chicago Bulls. Arcidiacono possessed a rare combination of speed, shooting range, and grit. He was a talented scorer, able to drive to the basket for layups or pull up and drain the deep three-pointer, and an equally talented defender, with the grit to play a special brand of physical defense and the heart to put his body on the line for his team.

On April 17th, 2019 the Wildcats added a new Arcidiacono to the team, in Ryan's 19 year old brother Chris Arcidiacono. Chris graduated high school in 2018, but decided to do a fifth year of prep school at the Perkiomen School to garner more high level college attention.

After watching his film, it became glaringly obvious to me that Chris is not a recruit that truly stands up to par with the rest of Villanova's 2019 recruiting class. While Chris possesses many of the same tools that made his brother a star, there are some major problems in his game that he needs to address before he can start to become the star he can be. However, before we start picking at his flaws let's talk about the strengths in his game.

The first thing you notice when looking at Chris is his size. At 6'3" and weighing 190 pounds, little Arch has the mold of a prototypical NBA guard. He's just as strong and just as fast as his brother, and in college those traits are only going to improve. As for skills, Arcidiacono is a talented scorer both in the paint and beyond the arc, and his mid-range game is solid as well. And while there is little film readily available of him on defense, in what I did see it was clear that he has the same defensive mentality as his brother. He is an accurate passer as well, although his creativity on offense tends to be a bit lackluster.

However, Chris has a major flaw in that he tends to be a ball-hog. After watching around 5 minutes of film I could count around 4 times where he would drive to the basket and make a heavily contested layup but one of his teammates would be wide open for a corner three. College defenses will be much harder to get past than high school defenses, and if Chris continues this trend he can seriously limit the amount of points 'Nova could score. He needs to learn to take the opportunities that will lead to more points for his team, even if that means he won't score as much. This also shows a gaping flaw in both court vision and shot selection, because he isn't seeing his teammate in the corner and he's taking layups with sometimes two defenders on his hip.

Now comes the big question: if he has these big flaws in his game, why would Villanova take a chance on him? The answer is because they know what he can be. Chris has the tools to be one of the best guards Villanova has had in a long time and Jay Wright has proved time and time again that he is the best in the country at turning young, raw talent into superstars. Every flaw Chris has can be coached out of him, and Coach Wright knows that. If all goes well, we might be talking about Chris Arcidiacono being as good if not better than his brother.

Thomas Zaffalon joined the AKSM photography team in the spring of 2018 as an intern sports writer. Thomas covers Villanova Athletics and excels in writing about basketball, football and baseball. Click Here to Contact Thomas Zaffalon.