People, it’s been great! It’s been great at I Bleed Blue and White with all of you. Hell, we still do bleed blue and white with the rest of you.

But we’ve moved on. Our new home is The Nova Blog on SB Nation. Come on over and hang out with us! Same guys, same passion, but better content moving forward and a better community to talk ‘Nova hoops!
See you there!

So you’ve probably noticed that the coverage around here has been sub-par lately. Well, that is because we’ve been a little preoccupied. The blog is actually moving (again, I know) to SB Nation, a great network of blogs. Some of our friends like The UConn Blog and Casual Hoya are already over there, and we’re very excited to be joining.

(Note: Andrew Geiger from Casual Hoya was actually the one to hook this up, so we’ve got to thank him)

Anyways, the move is for a couple of reasons. I love to write and converse with Villanova fans about the school we love, but I’m actually out of college now with a real life, and I can’t give it the time I’d like to sometimes. Maintaining a website is a lot of work, so joining SB Nation definitely cuts down on the maintenance (they are actually building the new site for me!).

Also, it reaches a much wider audience, which is something we’re always looking to do. Plus, there are a ton more great features such as FanPosts and FanShots that will get you, the readers, much more involved, which is also a huge bonus.

The guys at SB Nation believe that we’ll be up and running by Villanova’s first game in the BIG EAST Tournament, so look for a final farewell sometime this week as IBBW moves to SB Nation (with a new name as well!).

Thank you to everyone who has been a loyal reader here over the past few years! Can’t wait to see you over at the new home!

-Chris

Game just ended: 9:24 pm eastern time.  Villanova Wildcats defeat Cincinnati Bearcats 77-73.  Some notes on the game are below.

-After the bludgeoning at Syracuse, many people, including myself, were curious to see how Villanova would respond against the deperate Cincinnati Bearcats on their “Senior Night.”  The Wildcats seemed to come out of the gates ready to play; they hit the glass hard and had a nice rhythm on offense early on.

-Two Cats who really stood out in the beginning were Antonio Pena and Corey Stokes.  Pena was aggressive on the inside, and Stokes drained a few trey balls, which helped to build a lead of 10 with 8 minutes left in the first half.

-Then, the road squad went cold and looked confused on offense.  Cincinnati wasn’t exactly on fire, but the Cats could only muster 5 points over the final 8 minutes of the opening stanza.  As a result, the Bearcats were kept in the game, and eventually, they made a run to tie the game at half.

-Does that half sound eerily familiar?  Playing well at the start, then being unable to score over a long stretch of time allowing the opponent to storm back.  Syracuse game anybody?

-Halftime score: Villanova 31 Cincinnati 31

-Things got a little chippy to open the second half, with Antonio Pena and Yancy Gates exchanging some pleasantries off of a Pena rebound.  Both were given technicals, although that didn’t stop Gates from giving Mouphtaou Yarou a little shove soon thereafter. 

-The technicals may have fired up the Wildcats, as they went on a 12-1 run to open the last twenty minutes.

-Cincinnati cut the lead to 4 on a couple of occasions, but the playmaking of Scottie Reynolds and the fortitude of Mouphtaou Yarou aided Villanova in regaining momentum.

-The Nova lead reached 16 with about 7 minutes left, but the Bearcats did not pack it in.  A couple of missed assignments on perimeter defense by Villanova paved the way for Cincinnati to get right back in the game. 

-The Bearcats found themselves down only 3 with 3 minutes left, but a couple of shots from downtown clanged off the iron.  After a big trey from Reggie Redding, the Wildcats were up 6, but turnovers by Stokes and Maalik Wayns in the last minute gave Cincy a chance.  With Villanova up 2 and inbounding the ball with 3.2 secs left, they got the ball in the sure hands of Scottie Reynolds.  He promptly sunk 2 free throws and put the nail in the coffin.

Obviously, Villanova did not play a great game.  There were still lots of stupid mistakes, shooting droughts, and defensive lapses.  In addition, allowing a team to virtually erase a 16 point deficit with 7 minutes left is inexcusable.  In an NCAA Tournament game, Villanova would be going home right now with the aforementioned issues.  This is not the NCAA Tournament, though, and the Cats absolutely had to have this game.  Just to get back in the win column was so important tonight.  The victory will be a huge confidence builder heading into a showdown with West Virginia and then the Big East Tournament.  It’s not always going to be pretty, as we all know, because the Big East is a war night in and night out.  Any road win is critical, and for this group of Wildcats, who seemed to be on the ropes heading into this contest, this could be the gritty win that propels them into something special.  

Got a couple emails asking how long pick’em will be going on. The answer is all season until the games are finished. Obviously if we end up with early games in the BIG EAST Tournament/NCAA Tournament those will not count but lines will be getting out earlier so we’ll try to get the thread up earlier. Senior Night in Cincinnati = favorable line for the Cats? Kind of.

• On Game Day, I will post the official line we will be using for the game.
• In that thread, post your pick against-the-spread for the game that night.
• Make sure you use the same username for every pick (I know some of you are registered, if you aren’t this is a good reason to do so to make it easier). Also, make sure you provide your email so that I can contact the winner at the end of the year.
• Anonymous entries will not count.
• Entries posted after the game starts will not count.
• If you do not provide a pick for the game, it will be marked as a loss in the standings.
• If you are away and can’t make a pick in the thread, you can email me your pick. Email me at clane2787@gmail.com and I will try to email you back ASAP with the line (again, it must be emailed before the start of the game).
• The winner at the end of the year will win a prize (TBD) and I promise it will be something good. I’m not going to be lame like that. I’m searching eBay for cool Villanova stuff as we speak.
• In the event of a tie, the poster with the best BIG EAST record (regular season) wins. If still tied, the best Big 5 record wins. If still tied, the best OOC record wins. If still tied, we may have to do multiple prizes.

The line for tonight’s game is Villanova -4. Fire away.

Game just ended: 11:15 pm eastern time.  Syracuse Orange defeat Villanova Wildcats 95-77.  Some notes on the game are below.

-The epic showdown began with the Orange jumping out to a quick 5-0 lead, but Villanova responded right away with some deep treys by Scottie Reynolds.

-Villanova was really getting out in transition and forcing the issue throughout the first 12 minutes of the game, which allowed the Cats to build a lead as big as 9 at one point.

-Unfortunately, the good guys went ice cold over the latter part of the first half, allowing the Orange to gain some confidence and take control of the momentum.  The missed shots and subsequent long rebounds gave Syracuse the chances to get their transition game going.  For the most part, Villanova was not getting back on defense and Cuse ended the half on a 20-6 run.

-Halftime score: Syracuse 46 Villanova 36

-I really think Villanova played toe to toe with the Orange in the first stanza, but the Cats got absolutely blitzed in the second half.  The defense was a freakin joke, with Syracuse (specifically Andy Rautins) slicing and dicing the road squad.

-Syracuse shot an extremely high percentage in the final twenty minutes, but that directly relates to Villanova’s inability to prevent entry passes deep into the Orange post guys.  All Rick Jackson and Arinze Onauku had to do was drop the ball in the ocean. 

-As much as Villanova fans mock Andy Rautins, the kid can play.  He does virtually everything right, whether it’s defense, shooting, passing, leading.  Without him, Syracuse would not even be a top 10 team.

-The one positive Villanova can take away from this game was the offensive play of Mouphtaou Yarou.  He had numerous offensive rebounds and strong putbacks.  Couple that with a few nice short jumpers and it turned out to be a stellar performance by the highly touted freshman.

Ok listen–Syracuse was easily the better team tonight, and they may just be flat out better in general.  Regardless, who f’n cares?  This loss counts the same as the rest of the losses.  Sure, the chances of getting a #1 seed are much tougher now, but there really isn’t that much difference between a 1 or 2 seed.  Villanova went into an arena with 34,000+ anti-Villanova fans, played ok for 20 minutes, and then got hammered.  Playing in this type of atmosphere will definitely help in the weeks to come, especially in the NCAA Tournament.  Obviously, there are a variety of deficiencies that the Cats need to fix (defense, rebounding, Taylor King’s shooting, Reggie Redding’s offense, fouling, etc.), but Villanova is still a very good team that has the potential to do big things.  Like Jim Boeheim said right after the game, “It’s about who’s #1 at the end.”  

Big, big, big game today. Really can’t overstate how excited I am. Or how excited I am for my ‘drink beer all day with my friends and watch hoops’ session that has already started. In any case, we WILL have Pick’em on this Saturday.

• On Game Day, I will post the official line we will be using for the game.
• In that thread, post your pick against-the-spread for the game that night.
• Make sure you use the same username for every pick (I know some of you are registered, if you aren’t this is a good reason to do so to make it easier). Also, make sure you provide your email so that I can contact the winner at the end of the year.
• Anonymous entries will not count.
• Entries posted after the game starts will not count.
• If you do not provide a pick for the game, it will be marked as a loss in the standings.
• If you are away and can’t make a pick in the thread, you can email me your pick. Email me at clane2787@gmail.com and I will try to email you back ASAP with the line (again, it must be emailed before the start of the game).
• The winner at the end of the year will win a prize (TBD) and I promise it will be something good. I’m not going to be lame like that. I’m searching eBay for cool Villanova stuff as we speak.
• In the event of a tie, the poster with the best BIG EAST record (regular season) wins. If still tied, the best Big 5 record wins. If still tied, the best OOC record wins. If still tied, we may have to do multiple prizes.

The line for tonight is Villanova +4.5. Fire away!

Leading off today is a guest posting from our buddy Andrew.  Andrew may be a regular contributor to IBBW, possibly adding a weekly commentary to our in-season lineup. {I have made no edits to Andrew’s work, only added a picture and made the formatting consistent with our site.}

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

First of all, a shout out to my boys at IBBW for letting me guest post. I watched games with them all through college and as they’ve shown you over the past few years, they are knowledgeable, passionate fans with a talent for expressing. Now that we have completed a significant portion of the season, this piece is intended to be the first in a series of statistical posts using Ken Pomeroy’s (www.kenpom.com) online database to look deeper into this team’s success based on the black and white numbers.

Over the past few years we have witnessed the evolution of a basketball program. The Jay Wright era has seen an unprecedented run of success in every aspect of the program, ranging from recruiting to on the court performance. Behind a unique blend of veteran skill and youthful energy, this year’s entry has charged out of the gates to a school best start in the Big East, and despite recent hiccups, is poised for another deep run in March. In this blogger’s opinion the three biggest reasons for the success lie in the growth of 3 players at different stages of their careers: Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher and Antonio Pena. Building off Chris’s piece before senior night, I wanted to continue the Reynolds love fest by taking an in-depth look at his 2010 campaign.

Reynolds has parlayed the momentum from his celebrity like rise to fame last March into a late game swagger unrivaled by anyone (with maybe the exception of Sheron Collins) in the college game.

'lotta face

Scottie is a rarity in the college game; a four year player who was a starter and major contributor since stepping foot on campus as an 18 year old. Because of this we can look at his statistical output over his full tenure on the Main Line to help explain exactly where his game has improved and in turn see why he has evolved from an inexperienced combo player without a real position to a tenacious leader and legitimate NBA prospect.

Scotty has always been above average when it comes to offensive efficiency. He is heavily used on offense (27% of Villanova’s possessions this year end with him either making an assist or taking a shot, a rate that has been fairly steady throughout his career) but has managed to be in the top 500 players in the country in true shooting percentage (TS%) since his sophomore season (56.8%), improving each year to an all time high of 63.6%, good for 35^th best in the country as of when this article was written. A stat that really shows both increased efficiency and decision making, Scotty has improved mostly this year in raising his 2 point shooting percentage by over 10%, an absolutely incredible trend considering that this is where over 40% of his shots come from (including free throws and 3’s). Worth noting is that TS% is a statistic usually dominated by interior players who score most of their points in the paint (takes the average of FG%, 3P% and FT%, a guy who does nothing but dunk has a huge advantage on a diversified scorer such as Scottie).

Scottie has always been crafty at getting himself to the line but this year he is averaging almost an extra free throw per game over his career best (6.3), making him one of the top 100 (85) in this area as well. A final area where Reynolds has improved considerably statistically is in his Offensive Rating, which quantifies the amount of points scored per every 100 possessions where Scotty finishes the possession. His ranking of 120.5 is good for top 100 in the country in a category where he has never been in the top 100. While keeping high shooting percentages in 3’s (40.7%) and FT’s (82.2), the jump in 2’s shows that he is an elite scorer from anywhere on the floor. As we near Saturday night’s clash at the Carrier Dome, also of note is that the Orange’s Wesley Johnson, widely regarded as one of the frontrunners (along with Reynolds and The Gody) for Big East POY, has similar shooting splits (he takes a bit more 2’s and takes less 3’s than Scottie) but trails Scottie in every one of the aforementioned offensive efficiency categories.

As the regular season comes to a close, the scouts will undoubtedly debate whether or not Scottie is an NBA quality player. Hardwood critics (Doris Burke does not count as a critic; you need some form of basketball know-how to garner this title) will cite his lack of size, elite speed or athleticism and “lack of a true position” as reasons to keep him out. Fans will laud his shiftiness, leadership and his will to have the ball in his hand and make plays at the end of games as the intangibles that make him David Stern-handshake-worthy. There are merits to both sides but I would encourage each side to look deeper into the numbers: he is the epitome of what a college basketball player should be; a coachable four season student athlete who has improved both his game and his team each season.

Game just ended: 11:02 pm eastern time.  Villanova Wildcats defeat South Florida Bulls 74-49.  Some notes on the game are below.

-On ‘Senior Night’ on the Main Line, both teams came out cold, with each missing their first 3 shots.  The Wildcats eventually broke the ice, jumping out to an 8-0 lead. 

-The Bulls battled throughout most of the first half, keeping the deficit withing striking range.  In the last 6 minutes or so, though, the Cats broke the game open to a degree behind some acrobatic plays by Scottie Reynolds and the long distance shooting of Corey Stokes.  In addition, Antonio Pena added some thunderous dunks, while Mouphtaou Yarou provided solid work on the glass.

-As we all know, two of the main issues in Villanova losses this year has been defense and rebounding.  The Cats did a very nice job in the first half guarding the Bulls on the perimeter, especially on Dominique Jones, and boxing out on missed shots.

-Halftime score: Villanova 36 South Florida 25 

-Although Villanova was home and sporting a 36 game winning streak at the Pavilion, an 11 point lead in the Big East is never safe.  Dominique Jones started to knock down some trey balls and suddenly, the lead was a meager 6 with about thirteen minutes left. 

-Did you really think the Wildcats would lose on ‘Senior Night,’ though?  It obviously wasn’t a guarantee with the way the team has played recently, but I really didn’t think Scottie Reynolds and Reggie Redding would let the team leave without a victory.  Sure enough, the Cats began to impose their will via their depth, and the lead ballooned to 17 with 5 minutes left.

-Fittingly, the three (yes, three) seniors deserve high praise for their performances, not only for their outstanding careers obviously, but for their play in this game.  Although Russell Wooten does not play very much, he deserves the same amount of credit as anyone else on the squad.  Reggie Redding did not put on a stellar offensive display by any stretch, but his defense on the sharpshooter Jones was phenomenal.  Wherever Jones went, there was Redding in his hip pocket.  For a team like Villanova that has let certain opponents light them up this year, the shutting down of Jones by Reggie was a welcome sight.  What else can we say about Scottie?  He is simply the rock of this team and the entire program.  Like always, he made things happen tonight, whether it was draining a 3, getting to the foul line, creating shots for others, or diving for loose balls. 

-Thankfully, ‘Senior Night’ isn’t the last celebration for these seniors, because there is so much more to accomplish for them and this team as a whole.

Why is this such a big spread? Does Vegas know we lost 2 in a row? Or is it just because Villanova was crushing the spread all fall/early winter? Probably the latter. And it may have to do with Senior Night too.

• On Game Day, I will post the official line we will be using for the game.
• In that thread, post your pick against-the-spread for the game that night.
• Make sure you use the same username for every pick (I know some of you are registered, if you aren’t this is a good reason to do so to make it easier). Also, make sure you provide your email so that I can contact the winner at the end of the year.
• Anonymous entries will not count.
• Entries posted after the game starts will not count.
• If you do not provide a pick for the game, it will be marked as a loss in the standings.
• If you are away and can’t make a pick in the thread, you can email me your pick. Email me at clane2787@gmail.com and I will try to email you back ASAP with the line (again, it must be emailed before the start of the game).
• The winner at the end of the year will win a prize (TBD) and I promise it will be something good. I’m not going to be lame like that. I’m searching eBay for cool Villanova stuff as we speak.
• In the event of a tie, the poster with the best BIG EAST record (regular season) wins. If still tied, the best Big 5 record wins. If still tied, the best OOC record wins. If still tied, we may have to do multiple prizes.

The spread for tonight is Villanova -13. Fire away with your picks.

UPDATED:

Postgame Quotes

ORIGINAL:

Game just ended: 2:26 pm eastern time.  Pittsburgh Panthers defeat Villanova Wildcats 70-65.  Some notes on the game are below.

-Before getting to the game action, let me first say that I love games on CBS, even though I may be in the minority that like Verne Lundquist. 

-The game started out very sloppy for both teams, with bricks being thrown up left and right along with fouls and turnovers galore.

-The Panthers began to seize the momentum of the back and forth affair about midway through the opening stanza.  They certainly weren’t lighting it up from the field, but they got numerous second chance opportunities via their offensive rebounding. 

-Jay Wright earned yet another technical foul, which has got to be about his 4th of the year.  Some of the calls were questionable, but I have definitely seen worse this season.  After the technical foul shots, the Panthers were up 10 or 11, but the Cats made a mini run towards the end of the half to keep themselves in the game. 

-The two biggest problems of the first half for Villanova stemmed from their poor foul shooting, and as I mentioned before, getting thoroughly dominated on the glass.

-Halftime score: Pittsburgh 29 Villanova 23

-Did you really expect anything else in the second half, other than a typical, hard-fought Big East slugfest?

-Each team bended but never broke in the final 20 minutes.  The Cats cut it to 2 on multiple occasions, but a response was delivered each time by Gilbert Brown or Ashton Gibbs.  Sometimes, it seemed like the Panthers might pull away, but a response was delivered each time by Corey Stokes or Scottie Reynolds.

-In the end, though, Pitt just made more plays down the stretch to stave off the Wildcats.  On a crucial 1-1 free throw opportunity with 2 mins left and Villanova down only 3, Gilbert Brown missed the front end, but the overpowering Gary Mcghee, as he did so many times throughout the game, muscled his way to an offensive rebound.  Then, with the Cats down 4 and a minute left, Villanova put the full court press on.  The Pitt inbounder tried to throw a bomb to a streaking teammate (ala Reggie Redding in last year’s Elite 8), but the pass was way too long.  The hustling Pitt player dove into the stands, somehow saved the ball by knocking it in play, and it went off Antonio Pena’s hand out of bounds.  One more…Ashton Gibbs, who shoots 90% from the free throw line, missed 2 free throws in a row with 45 secs left, but on the push-out, Scottie Reynolds threw it right to a Pitt player.  These plays were not the sole reason for the loss obviously, but they serve as an example of the mistakes made by the Cats today. 

-Two last comments from me…1) As unathletic as Gary Mcghee is, he absolutely mandhandled the Villanova frontcourt today, and in my opinion, he won the game for the Panthers.  2) Jamie Dixon deserves coach of the year honors. 

Pittsburgh had 20+ offensive rebounds.  Enough said.  Let the ranting begin.