VILLANOVA, Pa. ââ'¬" While prefacing his remarks by saying he had no desire to jinx one of his senior captains, Villanova head coach Jay Wright nonetheless marveled for a few moments when asked this week about the early production of Ryan Arcidiacono. The senior guard's stat line through four games includes 22 assists and a single turnover.

"Those are incredible numbers," stated Wright. "Ryan has always played great offensively but I just think he's playing the best offensively since he's been here. Maybe the numbers aren't as high as they've been when we needed him to score more, but the efficiency is off the charts."

Across the board, the product of Langhorne, Pa., and Neshaminy High School has been solid. The 6-3 senior has connected on 18-of-33 attempts from the field (.545) for the 4-0 Wildcats, including 8-of-18 (.444) from beyond the 3-point arc. He averages 13.3 points, 5.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.0 steals per outing in the early going for VU.

"Ryan is shooting a high percentage now, his assists-to-turnover (numbers) are off the charts," noted Wright. "He's really playing well."

On Sunday, Arcidiacono finished with 15 points, eight assists, and zero turnovers as the Wildcats dug out of an early hole to defeat Akron 75-56 in a preliminary round game of the NIT Season Tipoff at the Pavilion.

"Ryan," added junior Josh Hart, "had a heck of a game."

Arcidiacono hopes to continue that trend as the Wildcats get set to head to Brooklyn, N.Y. for the next phase of the NIT Season Tipoff that begins on Thanksgiving Day at Barclays Center. Villanova, which moved up to No. 8 in this week's Associated Press Top 25, meets Stanford (2-2 overall, 0-0 Pac 12) at 4:30 p.m. Thursday (ESPN2 and 610 Sports Radio).

This is the second time in the last three seasons that Villanova is to face a representative of the Pac 12 Conference on Thanksgiving Day. In 2013, the Wildcats downed USC 94-79 in the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.

A key to Villanova's early success thus far has been its defensive tenacity. East Tennessee State had scored more than 100 points in its first two games before coming to the Pavilion on Nov. 20. The Buccaneers were held to 51 points, 31 below their 82.2 ppg average.

Akron averages 77 ppg and came to the Pavilion fresh from an 88-80 victory at Arkansas. The Wildcats held them to 56 points on the day.

Those are encouraging signs for a team that came into the new campaign with some concerns defensively after the loss of three seasoned graduates: Darrun Hilliard, Dylan Ennis and JayVaughn Pinkston.

"I feel a little bit better," Wright stated. "Teams like Akron, that are really smart and have a great point guard, are really tough to defend. There was a time in the second half (Sunday) when Daniel (Ochefu) and Arch stepped up on a double team and Donte (DiVincenzo) got a steal off of that. We're starting to recognize those things.

"We're getting there. But everyone is going to keep getting better and we are going to have to keep getting better."

Thursday's first game at Barclays Center features Arkansas and Georgia Tech. The Wildcats will meet one of those teams on Friday at either 12:30 p.m. or 3 p.m.

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