ESPN’s Jay Bilas, a personal favorite of IBBW’s, talks with Rece Davis about the underdogs’ chances in Detroit. Bilas discusses what Villanova must do to pull off the upset, citing Villanova’s defense as a key. Davis tries to get Bilas to bite on something at the end. Too funny.
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2301349&w=425&h=350&fv=]
Stan,
Bilas loves our team, there is no doubt about that. He actually said an advantage we have is our guard play, because anyone can get to the hoop off the dribble.
I disagree with you on the shootout though. We want to avoid that. We won’t win if this game is in the 90s or even the 80s. Good solid defense can get us a win.
Carolina doesn’t know the word defense, and I think that while they are much, much better than Duke, they are in for a shock when they step on the court. They haven’t seen defense like we play in the ACC.
StanChris all noted.
And I know that JB is partial to us and being a “Dookie”, I’m sure would love to see us win.
But I wouldn’t be afraid of running with them. And if the opportunity for transition offense (easy buckets) presents itself I hope we take advantage of it instead of being more deliberate. This group has proven they can run. I guess I just hope they make good judgments. I have faith they will.
I can also see a scenario where one half is more deliberate than the other. The other being more high octane.
Whatever the case, defense will definitely be the key to the game. And despite my opinion that a shootout would be good (or at least not bad), let’s just exploit to the max whatever weakness we find.
Last, listening to Francesa’s (sp?) interview with JW yesterday, Mike was also of the opinion we shouldn’t run with them. I think he also mentioned how deep they were. Well, I’m not going to concede our depth and bench vs. theirs.
Anyway, I can’t wait.
March 31, 2009
Memo to Mr. Bilas: We have athletes that can run and shoot also. Witness a few of our games. Let the shootout begin.
But speaking of high level D–we are going to have to play that! Lawson in particular is a jet and his assist to turnover ratio is outstanding. Not to mention his scoring ability. And he is a size that can give us trouble. Attitude! Let’s go get em.