Ryan Arcidiacono enjoys being the ‘small, little white guy'

Share

HOUSTON — Ryan Arcidiacono is beloved in Philly.

He’s played more games than anybody in Villanova history, he’s the only Wildcat ever with 1,500 points and 500 assists, he’s a four-year captain, a local kid from the Delaware Valley and the inspirational leader of a team that’s 95-13 over the last three years and opens play Saturday in the Final Four.

He plays hard and tough and smart, just like Philly sports fans demand.

In other places?

Not so beloved.

“People just don’t like a good, white basketball player,” Arcidiacono said Friday. “I don’t know why.”

Aridiacono is definitely good. He’s taken his game to another level during the NCAA Tournament, averaging a team-high 16 points per game to go with nine rebounds, eight assists and 58 percent shooting from three-point range in wins over UNC Asheville, Iowa, Miami and Kansas.

And he’s definitely white, too.

Aridiacono, speaking at NRG Stadium Friday, said he “got a lot of hate” on Twitter for being a white basketball player and finds that opponents often underestimate him because of his skin color.

“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “My first couple of years, yeah, ‘This small, little white guy on the floor?’

“If I see another white guy on the floor, I don’t think he stinks. They can think what they want. I definitely get a lot of hate from being the white guy on Twitter.”

Arcidiacono was asked if he feels he’s perceived the same way as former Duke star J.J. Redick, who's now in his 10th year in the NBA.

“That was a whole different level,” he said. “He had to change his cell phone [number] five or six different times. I had to change mine once. So I’m not at that level.”

Asked how he handles being underestimated — or hated — Arcidiacono said: “I take pride in it. Try to be the tough guy on the floor and the hardest-working.”

He singled out a tweet he got recently on his Twitter account, @RyArch15.

“I saw a tweet where somebody said that me, Perry Ellis (of Kansas) and Trevor Cooney (of Syracuse) have been around for 10 years,” he said.

“I take pride in that. It means you’ve been around for a while, you’ve been effective and gotten in peoples’ minds.

“I mess with their heads a little bit.”

Contact Us