"Money" making his mark already at Villanova

FROM KEITH GROLLER

I was talking to Joey Orlando, a former Liberty High football and basketball standout now at New Money3 Hampshire on Tuesday night, and talking to him about the Hurricanes glory days got me to thinking about Darrun Hilliard.

Orlando, by the way is coming to Goodman Stadium on Saturday to play Lehigh in a battle of nationally-ranked FCS (formerly I-AA) football teams. More on him later this week.

But back to Hilliard, who got a considerable amount of playing time at point guard as Villanova went to the Netherlands and played several games against European teams.

In one of the games, a 94-92 victory over Israel, Hilliard played very well. He finished with eight points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

He struggled a bit in a loss to The Netherlands, a game in which he totaled eight points and was 2-for-4 from 3-point range. He had three rebounds, one steal, but four turnovers

In all of these games, he was getting significant minutes, nearly 32 against Israel alone.

Hilliard drew some comments from his coach, Jay Wright.

"They came out in the second half and really picked up the defensive pressure," Wright said. "I thought we may have been a little tired on our fourth game in five nights but they were good. Darrun Hilliard is a freshman in that situation and it was tough for him at times. But he's had some great games for us. I also thought we came back and played well in the fourth quarter but that run was too tough for us to overcome."

The bottom line is that Hilliard got to step right in and run the offense and show what he can do.

He had some good moments and, typical of any freshman, some rough moments.

The bottom line is that he's going to be a player and contributor at Villanova and not relegated to the end of the bench.

And knowing him, no one in that entire program is working harder than Hilliard.

It will be interesting to see where he fits into Villanova's guard rotation once the season begins in little more than two months.

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/