I Bleed Blue and White

I’ll have a full recap of the weekend on Monday, but for now I just got back to my parents house in Fairfield and Liz is in the process of sending me some pictures that she took from her cell phone at the games this weekend. Enjoy the pictures, and enjoy this time in general. We went back to the team hotel after the game and I’ve never seen a group of people happier. It was truly a night to remember.

This reminds me, if anyone has any stories to share about the weekend, or any pictures or anything like that please let me know. Either leave a note in the comments section or send any of us an email and we’ll start posting people’s memories from a great weekend.

Scottie drains a free throw vs. Duke.

Scoreboard!

The celebration begins!

The players showing off their hardware.

The net cutting begins.

Scottie Reynolds cutting down the net.

Jay Wright and the boys at the team hotel.

Thursday night was phenomenal, and one of the best nights ever. But it’s a new day today and we have the Final Four in our sights.

So many alums showed up in Boston that the VUAA had to rent out a 2nd bar today.

After Thursday’s win IBBW allIstar Brian Holman shouted “There’s something special about this team!” as we headed to celebrate at the bar.

Do you feel it too? Let’s get it done tonight.

We’ll be at Hurricane O’Reilly’s today before the game.

Let’s Go Nova!

What’s up ya’ll.

So I was fortunate (I guess?) to have lost my cell phone at the game last Thursday…..and now have a sweet new BlackBerry Storm!!

First off, the thing is really hard to get used to using… but that’s besides the point.

I’m going to attempt to snag some pictures of the trip, the pregame and the game itself and try to load it up on the site in real-time. I haven’t really had the time or energy to check out if there is a WordPress application for smart phones but I’m hoping that either there is or it won’t be that hard to upload stuff.

Either way, we’ll do our best to give you guys “the feel” of the arena tonight in Boston. From what I’ve gathered…there’s a rather large contingency (especially within the Senior Class) making the trek up 95 to the Mass Pike for the game tonight.

In any event, we’ll do our best to get an open thread up here later in the day for all of you to play nice during the game and hopefully we’ll make some updates as the weekend unfolds.

Luego.

Making my last minute preparations before I leave for Boston. I’ve got to pick up Liz at the Newark Airport on my way, but we should be into Boston by 5 (I’m hoping). Jamie is making a pit stop in New York City with his car, but Mark is heading straight up to Boston with a pack of Wildcat fans who are ready to get rowdy.

Hopefully we’ll see some of you up there, but if not, make sure you are ready to get wild wherever you are for this game!

The Game: #3 Villanova (28-7, 13-5) vs. #2 Duke (30-6, 11-5)

Location: TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, MA

Time: 9:57 p.m. ET

Broadcast: CBS (regional coverage)

Brief Rundown: After struggling with American in the opening round, Villanova slaughtered UCLA en route to a headlining victory. Seniors Dante Cunningham and Dwayne Anderson have displayed the ‘refuse to lose’ attitude that we’re accustomed to as fans.

Duke blew out Binghamton before surviving vs. Texas in the 2nd round. The Blue Devils have been carried by Gerald Henderson, but don’t think he’s their only option. They are well coached and they play hard.

Many players from both ‘Nova and Duke know each other from high school. This should be a brawl.

3 Keys to Victory:

1. Guard the 3 – Outside of Henderson, Duke isn’t loaded with offensive talent who can get to the rim and score. They run a drive and kick offense, and ‘Nova needs to be alert. They have the shooters that can knock down open jumpers. Being lackadaisical at the 3-point line isn’t going to suffice.
2. Drive, but with caution – ‘Nova should have a distinct advantage with their guard play of getting to the hoop. Duke doesn’t have the defenders to match up with 1 on 1, but they are taught to step in and take charges. The refs will have a lot to do with this, but the ‘Nova guards need to be careful and stay in control.
3. Believe – Stealing a line here, but WE need to believe. The team needs to believe, and we as fans need to believe. ‘Nova fans will be there in the thousands tomorrow, I have no doubt about that. But we as a unit need to get it done. No excuses.

Links:

• Nova News
• VUHoops
• Villanova By The Numbers

…Lets Go Nova…let’s hear what you think about the game below…

I’ll never doubt my hometown people again. I was a fool and went completely off the alumni association info (there was no information available at the time) and told everyone that there was no gathering in the area.

Well, I was wrong. And I feel like an ass now. So Fairfield/Westchester alumni, here’s me apologizing to you.

The alumni in Fairfield County and Westchester County will be gathering at Sports Page in White Plains, NY for tomorrow’s game. I urge you to go if you are in the area.

Again, I’m sorry to the alums. When I checked the alumni page there was no information available. I’ll never doubt you guys again!

I’ve got some evening links for you, and I actually am re-linking you to the article about Scottie’s health. I didn’t realize that Jay’s press conference transcript was in there. Mea culpa.

• Jay Wright has seemingly been on every show, radio station, website that you can name. The man is a worker. Here’s his press conference transcript from today…Post Patterns
• Kyle Lowry dresses like Jay-Z these days, but like Randy Foye hasn’t forgotten his roots…Philadelphia Inquirer (Ashley Fox)
• Jay Wright was once a mere college student. And apparently, they hadn’t invented gel yet (see the picture)…Philadelphia Daily News (Rich Hofmann)
• I wasn’t able to make the live blog last night, but the fellas did a good job without me. And they hate Duke….PittBlather

Some interesting news today that Scottie Reynolds almost didn’t play vs. American last Thursday. Reynolds suffered an injury last Tuesday, and then aggravated it again on Wednesday. According to Reynolds, he was ready to sit out.

“I didn’t tell anyone, but the night before I really didn’t think I was going to be able to go,” Reynolds said. “I banged it during a drill last Tuesday in practice, then banged it again Wednesday and it swelled up again. You know your body. I didn’t think I was going to be able to play.”

Not really a fan of the whole “I kept it a secret” part, but what’s done is done. Scottie is right in that he knows his body better than anyone, so the final decision should be his.

Anyways, this raises an interesting point. Clearly, Reynolds wasn’t himself last week. He scored just 19 points in 2 games and looked slow and uncomfortable. Well, we now know why.

I was asked today if I was worried about Scottie heading into the Duke matchup, and to be honest I was. I’ve had this feeling that he’s banged up, because he’s a quiet kid and he’s not going to make a big deal out of an injury. He’s just going to play through it. So yeah, I was worried that he was hurt and that his game would suffer.

But now that I know he’s healthy, I’m feeling a lot better about Thursday’s game. Let’s face it — Dante Cunningham, Dwayne Anderson and Corey Fisher have been phenomenal (throw Reggie Redding in there too) — but Scottie Reynolds is one of the stars of this team. When he’s clicking, the team does a lot better.

We’re going to need him to play well against Duke. That doesn’t mean we need 40 points, but we can’t have him hurt and not looking to score. Think Scottie in the 2nd game against Marquette. Everything he touched turned to gold. We want that Scottie.

I’ll have a post up later about my feelings on the game, but let’s just say that this news put a smile on my face.

Jamie was rehashing his call-in to ESPN 950 yesterday and we started talking about the nature of Philly sports. Obviously, people do hate us that much. Why? Pure jealously in my opinion. Jamie and I are both from New York, so we’re not from some hick sports scene. We root for a lot of the same teams, and we’ve talked about if we “hate” the other NY teams. If the Giants were eliminated, I don’t think we’d actively root for the Jets to get slaughtered in the playoffs. We want the city to do well, not just our teams. Of course our teams come first, but after that it’s about the city. I think it’s just the nature of Philly fans that brings on such animosity.

Anyways, random thought, but one of the articles linked below details that logic.

• Who would you root for, Duke or Villanova? The answer seems to be that Philly wants Duke to win. Wow…Soft Pretzel Logic
• Randy Foye realizes he’s lucky to have escaped to the NBA. But he isn’t forgetting about where he came from…Philadelphia Daily News (Kerith Gabriel)
  
• Maalik Wayns is the Gatorade Pennsylvania Player of the Year. Woot…Philadelphia Daily News
• Corey Stokes has been a marksman since he was playing with nerf balls…Philadelphia Daily News (Dick Jerardi)
• More talk about the love between ‘Nova and Duke players and coaches. Personally, I can’t wait ’til the first message we send…Philadelphia Inquirer (Joe Juliano)
• It’s the last day of the blogathon for the Randy Foye Foundation. Go make a donation!…VUHoops

This afternoon, a group of students gathered in front of The Pavilion to cheer the team on as they loaded onto their buses and headed for Boston. As part of the promotion, a raffle was held and 35 students were selected and sold tickets to the Sweet Sixteen and Elight Eight games this weekend.

As for the raffle, the IBBW guys cleaned up, snaring some tickets for their trip to Boston. Good for us.

As for the sendoff itself, I’ve got to say that I’m a little disappointed in the students. We aren’t the biggest school in the world, but I’d be surprised if there was even 250 total people there. Disappointing is really the only word I can use to describe it. This team is our pride and joy, and the students (especially the seniors) should have been out in full force.

I understand that people have class and such, but you won’t convince me that the overwhelming majority of the campus had night class.

As for the actual sendoff, it was fun. The team slowly came out in groups of 2 or 3, got some nice cheers from the students on hand and had what felt like 10 TV crews filming the entire thing.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Dante Cunningham, Shane Clark, Frank Tchuisi, Dwayne Anderson and Scottie Reynolds emerged to enormous cheers and instead of heading for the bus like the rest of the team, made a beeline straight for the students and made their way through the crowd and started high fiving everyone and cheering with the rest of us. It was special.

They then headed onto the bus, but after a few minutes Dante re-emerged to give a speech to the students. His essential message was that he really appreciated all the support, let us know that Jay Wright had some meetings and had left early, and then told us that he’d see us in Boston and we were all going to win together. I liked that.

Dante definitely gets it. It’s funny cause you see those guys come out and they are like rock stars. They could play the arrogant athlete and leave their headphones on and act too cool, but they came over and got rowdy with the students, and they understand that we live and die by the team. He’s giving his speech and he’s got this sheepish grin on his face like he can’t contain his excitement. Too funny. But I respect the hell out of the guy (as well as the rest of the team) because when they step on the court it’s all business, and when they lose you can tell their night is ruined.

I’ve got a good feeling about this weekend. I don’t want to jinx anything but it definitely feels like the stars are alining. Go Cats!