I Bleed Blue and White

I’ve already documented how frustrating it is to follow a basketball game on my BlackBerry while I ride the train home from work. Yesterday added a new element to that. While I drained what little life there was in my phone hitting refresh every 20 seconds, I realized that Drexel was still not scoring. 10 minutes into the game, and they still didn’t have a point. Now to be fair, Villanova wasn’t exactly blowing them out of the gym either. Mid-way through the 1st half when the Dragons finally got on the board, they cut the deficit to 11-3 and would hang around for a few more minutes before ‘Nova finally hit their stride.

We need more of the Reynolds we saw last night.

So when I looked back on that, I’m almost happy I didn’t have to witness such putrid basketball being played. It all worked out. What I did not realize until the 2nd half was just how good our defense was playing. Drexel’s top 2 scorers, Jamie Harris and Gerald Colds were held scoreless on the night. This comes 4 days after we held LaSalle’s top scorer to 7. And all of this is being done without our best defender, Reggie Redding.

It’s scary to think how good this team can be on the defensive end when Redding returns. Even Jay Wright, always one to be a little pessimistic and underplay a performance, finally admitted last night that he was genuinely surprised by how good his defense is this year. He knew they had the offense (which hasn’t even showed up for a full game outside of Penn) but he was expecting his team to not be as good as they’ve been on defense. That tells me a lot. When Jay even has to admit it, you know it’s true.

So color me very, very happy. The ‘Nova teams I watched as a student weren’t the flashiest offensively, and they were always undersized. Yet they were the toughest sons of bitches I ever watched on a basketball court. I thought this was the year we went all offense-no defense (not wrong to assume considering who we brought in and who we lost) but I may have to reconsider. These guys are hungry.

Onto my abbreviated player notes (really only caught the 2nd half):

• I’ve got to hand it to Corey Stokes and Dominic Cheek once again. Keeping Drexel’s top 2 men under 10 points each would have made me extremely happy. Blanking them is on another level completely. Stokes continues to elevate his game on the defensive end. The offense is coming. Thank Bob Hurley for Dom Cheek. The kid is well-schooled.
• Scottie Reynolds had a phenomenal game, and even flirted with his first career triple-double (2 rebounds and 2 assists short). That’s the Scottie I want to see every game. Then again, he may have had some extra motivation.
• Corey Fisher had a pretty quiet night, but again, his defense was stellar. 4 steals to go with 5 points and 5 assists. Ideally you want more offense, but in a 19-point victory it is hard to complain.
• Tough to believe that 19 points and 11 rebounds gets Antonio Peña the 4th bullet point, but what can I say? I’m growing accustomed to this out of ‘Tone. Maryland will be a big test. If he turns in another performance like this, we may have to start expecting this out of him and be disappointed when it doesn’t happen. 11-16 from the line was nice too.
• 3 more blocks for Maurice Sutton and countless shots altered. Still not getting super-excited because he hasn’t seen the big boys yet, but if he can play this role this team will go places.
• Taylor King rediscovered the stroke last night. 4-6 from downtown including one BOMB from well beyond NBA-range. His release is so smooth. But even better, he’s still making all the hustle plays that some people doubted he would be willing to make. He’s quickly, and deservingly, become a crowd favorite.
• Not much to report on Maalik Wayns or Isaiah Armwood. Wayns was 3-4 from the field, so he chose his shots well and converted, but he only had 1 assist and 3 turnovers. Need that to be better from your future PG. Armwood only got 7 minutes of action. Wish he saw more.
• Russell Wooten got in late and scored another 2 points. His points per minute this season are outstanding.

Few days off now until we travel to Washington D.C. and face Maryland in a ‘neutral game.’ There will be nothing neutral about it. This looks to be a very tough test that will show us a lot about this team as they get their first road test of the year.