I Bleed Blue and White

Halftime update here for those who can’t see the game…its been a tough one, real close. Teams enter the half at 32-27 G’Town advantage, after a poor last possession by Corey Fisher that ends with a Greg Monroe alley-oop as time expires. Both teams are playing outstanding D and terrible offense. I think both teams have combined 2-20 from 3-pt line.

The majority of Villanova’s points have come from the free throw line. All of Scottie’s points are from the line, and Georgetown may wind up in foul trouble later in the game.

Greg Monroe and Chris Wright have been doing the damage for G’Town. Monroe is one of those extremely underwhelming talents. He doesn’t look that good, but he’s been getting the job done.

Things to watch for in the second half:

1. We need to settle down on offense. Corey’s been a little out of control, and so has Scottie. I think we need to slow down a little and look for Dante more.
2. While we need to settle down, we still need to keep attacking and try and keep Georgetown in foul trouble.
3. Contain Monroe, he’s been the key to the game. If we double/triple team him, he’s been finding the open man, if we single him, he takes it to the hoop. I think our best approach is to let Dante try and deny position like he did in the very beginning of the game.

Hopefully second half starts to go our way. Let’s Go Cats!`

The Game: #10 Villanova (23-5, 11-4) vs. Georgetown (14-12, 5-10)

Location: The Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, PA

Time: 12:00 p.m. ET

Broadcast: ESPN

Brief Rundown: Villanova barely escaped DePaul on Wednesday night and now comes home to face a reeling Georgetown team. Corey Fisher has been the best player on the Wildcats for a few weeks now, and it appears that he has finally put everything together.

Georgetown has lost two straight, likely ending their NCAA hopes unless they can make a run in New York City. Playing Villanova is the end of a tough 3 game stretch for Georgetown, and they’d like to pick up a big win to try and salvage a disappointing season.

3 Keys to Victory:

1. Get Dante going early – Greg Monroe is talented, but has yet to gain his footing in the rugged Big East. ‘Dante 3000′ has been through the wars and the veteran should be able to take Monroe on down low and teach him a few things. If Cunningham gets going early it will only make things easier for the guards. Speaking of which…
2. Use the guard’s quickness – Corey Fisher has been on fire the last few weeks and literally has been unstoppable. I’m not sure Georgetown has a defender that can match up with him, or Scottie Reynolds. Their ability to get into the lane should provide Villanova with some easy scores.
3. Focus – The student section is only going to be on one end this week because of the school break. Who knows how the atmosphere will be until game time, but the players and coaches will have to maintain focus, because the usual homecourt advantage might not be there this weekend.

Links:

• VUHoops
• Nova News

…Lets Go Nova…let’s talk about the game below…

For the second round of blogger talk, I chatted with Andrew from CasualHoya. As you can probably surmise, Andrew takes a lighter approach to the blogging experience. We had a good Q&A and took a few potshots at each other all in good fun. If you head to his site you can see me dishing out some junk.

Chris (I Bleed Blue and White): When Chris Wright and DaJuan Summers inevitably throw down this season, who wins? And who’s on the undercard?

Andrew (CH): I truly believe that anyone who has ever attended ‘Cuse or currently does suffers enough by having to be up there for 4 years.  That being said, I would first punch every single one of the students who threw stuff at the few Hoyas fans that made the horrible trek to the Carrier Dome a few weeks ago.  ‘Cuse fans are really the worst.  Well, maybe except for those Nova fans who dressed up in prison gear when Iverson led the Hoyas into the Philly that year.  But, if I had to choose a single ‘Cuse player whose face I would put on a punching bag, it would have to be Devendork’s.  That guy is horrible.  It’s one thing to single-handedly ruin your team’s chances when you’re on the court, but punching women? Come on!  Yeah, definitely Devendork.

Thanks to Andrew. Definitely a change of pace, but a lot of fun at the same time.

We’re back with another edition of Blogger Beat, which is the first of 2 for Georgetown (that’s right, I’m treating all you guys). I talked with Johnny from HoyaHoops in anticipation of the upcoming game. The transcript of my questions for him is below. If you go to HoyaHoops you can find my answers to his questions.

Chris (I Bleed Blue and White): Man, I always knew there was a rivalry between you guys and Syracuse, but “Georgetown Week” in the Syracuse blogosphere was out of control. Have Troy Nunes, Orange::44 and the bunch lost the plot or is the feeling mutual on your side? I don’t pretend like Villanova and Georgetown’s rivalry is huge, but it’s had some good moments (1985!) and some bad (I’m still fuming over the “foul” last year).

Johnny (HoyaHoops): Syracuse and Georgetown is a HUGE rivalry.  They’re our #1 rivals hands down.  I try to stay away from Orange blogs, so I’m not sure how over the top they went, but I know that after the Hoyas crushed them at the Verizon Center, that definitely amped them up for their home game a month later.

So I think that the rivalry is definitely mutual.  I’m not sure how many Georgetown fans would throw bottles and things at visiting Syracuse fans if they made the trip to DC, but that’s another story altogether.

With Villanova, though, I think you guys make more of that than we do.  For Hoyas fans, it’s Syracuse #1, everyone else #2.  I know that a lot of the Hoya faithful consider Maryland a huge rivalry, and so they’re happy Georgetown got to destroy two of their biggest rivals.

Chris (IBBW): I think most agreed Georgetown would take a step back this year, but most (myself included) figured they would still be a Top 25 team. I’ve seen a lot of the media say that Greg Monroe hasn’t lived up to the hype, but in my opinion the loss of Jonathan Wallace at the point has hurt more. What’s the real story?

Johnny (HH): Nobody seems to know what the problem is, but I can promise you it’s not Greg Monroe’s fault.  Like any freshman, he has his ups and downs, but he’s been doing very well at picking apart defenses by making the right passes.  A lot of people are questioning whether he’s getting the ball enough in the post, but again, I don’t think Georgetown’s problems can be pinned on Greg.  If he gets the ball more often down low, it’s not going to solve everything; there are a lot of things going on, and I think everyone, Coach Thompson included, is at a loss to figure out what all these things are and how to fix them.

Definitely, life without Jonathan Wallace has been tough for the Hoyas, and his calming presence alone would make this current team 100 times better, but he’s not coming back.  After the Marquette game last Saturday, JTIII hinted at the fact that his team is very young and Marquette’s was full of veteran players, which is why the Hoyas failed to execute down the stretch.  As a senior, Wallace was excellent in late game situations, especially at the free throw line.

Chris (IBBW): It’s been widely rumored that there is dissension in the Hoya locker room. It was believed there were problems last year between DaJuan Summers and Roy Hibbert, although they insisted everything was fine. Any truth to the chemistry problems this year?

Johnny (HH): Nobody knows what goes on in the Georgetown locker room.  That place has as high security clearance as any in Washington DC.  Saying that, there may be some team chemistry issues, I don’t know.  But the thing is, it sure didn’t look like there was any problem at the beginning of the season when the team was winning, so I don’t put too much into that.  When your team is losing, you’re gonna  be upset, and tempers are gonna flair.

Chris (IBBW): Can only a Big East Tournament title save Georgetown’s NCAA hopes?

Johnny (HH): It would look that way.  Now if the Hoyas beat Villanova, they’d have three big wins against Top 10 teams, and they do have one of the toughest schedules.  I think KenPom has Georgetown with one of the Top 5 in terms of Strength of Schedule, and they are #45 in RPI.  A big win at Nova would help, along with a nice run in the BET, so you never know.  The main thing is that Georgetown needs to play better basketball.  Sneaking into the tournament playing the way they have lately would just be embarrassing in the first weekend of the tournament.

Chris (IBBW): Finally, what’s your feeling on the game? Villanova struggled with DePaul badly on Wednesday, but Georgetown is reeling. The Villanova students will largely be on break, which helps Georgetown immensely. Any predictions?

Johnny (HH): I think the Hoyas will win.  I always think the Hoyas will win.  Before one of the games at Verizon – maybe Pitt – some people on press row were asking who everyone thought would win, and I said Georgetown.  When the Hoyas lost, somebody said, see it’s your fault – you jinxed it.  I was like, “Dude, I’ve said that before every game.”  After the last few months, I’m finally beginning to believe them.  Maybe I am jinxing things.

Thanks to Johnny for the Q&A session. He runs a great Georgetown blog, so head over to HoyaHoops before the game to get some Georgetown perspective.

In Seth Davis’ latest column for Sports Illustrated, he discusses his Top 10 candidates for Coach of the Year, among other topics. Davis ranks Jay Wright at #9 on the list, citing his use of guards once again, and the emergence of Corey Fisher.

“Jay Wright, Villanova. The Wildcats’ guard-heavy personality results more from necessity than design. (Wright swears he tries to recruit big men, but Nova’s reputation as Guard U scares them off.) But once again Wright has his team playing smart, tough, scrappy basketball. Villanova looked a little shaky at the start of the season as it blew through a weak nonconference schedule and then lost to Texas at Madison Square Garden, but the steady improvement of Wright’s players (most notably Corey Fisher) has paid off. And there is arguably no player in the country who has improved more over the course of his career than senior forward Dante Cunningham.”

Seth Davis also discusses some reader’s choices for NBA prospects, and answers some mailbag questions.

…Generally I don’t mind Seth Davis…he’s a little too “magoo” for me, but he comes off to me as a guy who actually puts in some research before he opens his mouth…which is evidenced by his shoutout to Dante’s continued improvement…

…I don’t agree with his assessment of Jim Calhoun…yes UConn was supposed to be good…but then they lost Jerome Dyson and everybody jumped off the bandwagon…so if they win the Big East Tournament and then go on a deep run in the NCAA’s, I think he deserves to be in the conversation since everybody outside the Big East wrote his team off…

…Regardless, that is two shout-outs to Wright as a COY candidate in the last few days…still don’t see it happening but hey you never know…maybe a BET Championship seals the deal…

Dante Cunningham has been named one of 15 finalists for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, which is given annually to the National Player of the Year as determined by the U.S. Basketball Writer’s Association. Cunningham joins fellow Big East players DeJuan Blair, Luke Harangody, Jerel McNeal and Hasheem Thabeet on the list.

Here’s a description of the award:

“The Oscar Robertson Trophy is awarded to the USBWA’s Player of the Year. It is the nation’s oldest award and the only one named after a former player. The legendary Oscar Robertson was the USBWA’s first player of the year in 1959. The USBWA renamed its player of the year award the Oscar Robertson Trophy in 1998.”

…Congrats to Dante…this is a big honor, especially coming basically out of nowhere like he did…I’m glad that somebody finally recognized…

I don’t know about you, but I’m still thankful we escaped last night. That’s the one thing about this team, they avoid the bad losses, even if it means ugly wins. That’s a good quality to have and it will prove to be huge to us when seeding comes around.

Here’s some light reading for everyone.

• Jay Wright for National Coach of the Year? Jeff Goodman at FoxSports thinks he’s on the short list. Me? Not a chance he gets it, although he has done a remarkable job this year.
• Dominic James is out for the season with a broken foot. In case you missed the stellar game between UConn and Marquette last night, it was a non-contact injury. I feel bad for James. He plays hard and from all accounts is a good person. Tough way to go out.
• Dick Jerardi of the Philadelphia Daily News say that Corey Fisher is impossible to guard (scroll down), and he finishes at the rim as well as anyone in the country. I agree. I know some want Fisher starting, but I’m completely fine with him coming into the game and running people ragged. It’s his overall minutes that I think need increasing, not the fact that he’s the 6th man.
• Pete at Lets Go Nova criticizes Jay Wright’s decision to keep play Anderson/Clark more than Fisher/Stokes. But like the rest of us, he’s just happy to have the win.
• VUHoops updates the Mike Gilchrist recruitment, noting Gilchrist’s long commute to learn under Kevin Boyle at St. Pat’s.
• AJ Price took Marquette to the woodshed to get Jim Calhoun his 800th win. Price took us part, but what he did to the Golden Eagles was on another level. It’s the first time I’ve seen Jerel McNeal overmatched in a long, long time. As tough as it might be for some of you, we’re definitely rooting for UConn from here on out.
• Notre Dame barely survived Rutgers at home, but Virginia Tech did us a huge favor by rolling into Death Valley and knocking off Clemson.

I’ve got another final this afternoon, but I’ll make sure to get some Georgetown posts going soon. They’re about as big a blog community as us, so it shouldn’t be too hard.

Everyone make it through the night? Are we officially off heart attack alert? Good. If you can bring yourself to relive last night, here’s some highlights from the game, courtesy of ESPN.

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If you missed the game, here is the recap and the box score.

Sometimes you just have to sit back, take a deep breath, and thank whatever God you answer to. Villanova escaped DePaul tonight, winning by 2 after being down 33-25 at the half. The opening 20 minutes was probably the worst half of basketball that Villanova has played in years. There was almost nothing positive to take from it, except for the play of Corey Fisher, who has continued his stellar play.

The defense wasn't there tonight.

Scottie Reynolds suffered through another rough shooting night (especially the 1st half), but rebounded a bit in the 2nd and hit some clutch free throws down the stretch to close out the win. He finished with 18 points and 6 rebounds.

Reggie Redding just missed a double-double with 9 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. He continues to play well. Antonio Pena had an awful 1st half, but showed life in the 2nd half with a tough and 1 down low as well as a beautiful backdoor pass to Redding for a layup.

In the 1st half, Dante Cunningham took himself out of the game with foul trouble (he is good for a few head-scratching fouls every game it seems). The lack of Cunningham’s presence allowed DePaul big man Mac Koshwal to record a double-double by halftime, but Cunningham’s resurgence in the 2nd half seemed to take Koshwal out of his groove a bit. Cunningham finished with 18 and 6 as well, on a decent 7-14 effort.

Make no mistake though, this one was ugly early on. It was really hard to watch. Villanova, specifically Dwayne Anderson and Corey Stokes, did a phenomenal job on sharpshooter Will Walker early on, not giving him an inch of space. That changed down the stretch of the 1st half when ‘Nova continued to leave him open, and he continued to make 3’s. Villanova’s D wasn’t much better on him in the 2nd period and Walker finished with 23 points on 6-11 shooting from beyond the arc. Villanova’s continued lack of effort in defending beyond the arc needs to be addressed.

Villanova began to build a lead in the 2nd half, sparked by sophomores Fisher (12 points) and Stokes (10 points), but failed to put the Blue Demons away as the game began to end. It wasn’t so much Villanova’s struggles on offense (even though they missed layup after layup and couldn’t hit a jumper to save their life), but their defensive effort tonight that was concerning.

Everyone knew that Dar Tucker, Koshwal and Walker were the only threats DePaul had. And Villanova let Koshwal dominate the glass, left Walker open for the only shot he has in his arsenal, and continuously let Tucker get into the lane. It was frustrating to watch. It was clear to me that despite what happened to Pittsburgh last night, and the fact that DePaul beat ‘Nova last year, that the Cats were not ready to play tonight.

They sleptwalked into this one, and frankly, are lucky to be escaping with the win. At the end though, that is all we wanted. With UConn’s victory of Marquette tonight, Villanova is just 1 game back in the loss column of both Pitt and Marquette, so the 4 seed is becoming more of a reality.

Be happy we got the win tonight. Granted, it was DePaul and it shouldn’t have been that close, but we got out alive. That is what is important. Villanova has avoided the “bad” loss this year. There aren’t many teams that can say that.

Breathe with me everyone…

The Game: #10 Villanova (22-5, 10-4) at DePaul (8-19, 0-14)

Location: Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL

Time: 8:00 p.m. ET

Broadcast: WPHL in Philadelphia

Brief Rundown: Villanova are coming off a season sweep of Syracuse, a hard fought game that came down to the wire. A trip to the winless Blue Demons would seem to be a nice break before clashes with the desperate Georgetown Hoyas and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but Villanova has to be careful not to sleepwalk through this one, because DePaul knocked them off last year.

Nothing has gone right for DePaul. They’ve played a few teams tough (USF, Marquette, Cincinnati) but have been able to secure a win. Other than that, it’s been blowout after blowout in the Big East, including a 19 point loss to fellow doormat Rutgers.

Villanova and DePaul split their seasons series last year, with each team taking the win at home.

3 Keys To Victory:

1. Control Tucker and Koshwal - Dar Tucker and Mac Koshwal are the two stars, outside and inside respectively, for DePaul. They can both score and Koshwal is averaging nearly 10 points a game and has shown the ability to control the paint. Villanova can’t let these two make an early impact on the game and give DePaul a fighting chance.
2. No foul trouble for Dante - When Dante Cunningham has been plagued by fouls, Villanova has suffered. They lose any presence they have on the inside and the other teams know it and extend their defense. This might be a good time to get Antonio Pena going by letting him challenge Koshwal and bang him around a bit.
3. Play your game – As we discussed yesterday, this is one of those games that doesn’t do Villanova any good by winning big. So don’t go for the flashy plays and don’t try to do too much. It might be close for a while on the road, but don’t panic. Stick to the game plan and get the victory. People might remember it as an ugly win for a day, but they would remember a loss for the rest of the season.

Links:

• Nova News
• VUHoops
• Associated Press

…Lets Go Nova…what does everyone think about the game tonight?…discuss below…