I Bleed Blue and White

On a rare Saturday where Villanova didn’t play, the Wildcats needed help from another group of Wildcats to make history.  With Kentucky losing to South Carolina on Tuesday night, Villanova had a chance to become #1 in the nation for the first time in school history.  The Kansas Jayhawks downed the Kansas State Wildcats in a nailbiter though, so in all likelihood, Kansas will be #1 and Villanova #2 when the new polls come out on Monday. 

Not really a big deal if you ask me.  It would be cool to hold the top spot, but being #1 in the very last poll is all that matters.     

My apologies for the lack of posts.  Being in New York City really took a lot out of me, and the Jets lost, so I’m not in the greatest mood.  Anyways, here are some links to get the week started.

-Villanova vs. St. John’s Postgame Quotes

-Maalik Wayns Receives Big East Rookie of the Week Honors

-ESPN’s Weekly Watch

-Joe Lunardi’s Updated Bracketology

-Wildcats Climb in the New Polls

-Villanova Feels Right at Home in NYC

I will be at the game on Wednesday at the Wachovia Center, so let me know if you plan on attending.

While I continue my attempts link the spreadsheet into this post (computer is acting up), I’m going to give you a quick look into the standings. If you think I have something wrong, let me know. I probably did miss a couple of picks in there somewhere. I’m also convinced some people are using multiple names, even though I asked you to use the same one every week. Oh well.

We’re only listing people with 4 wins or more. If you aren’t on here, you haven’t reached that point.

In 1st place, with a record of 7-2-1:

• Mark (IBBW)
• pttam7yanks

In 2nd place, with a record of 6-3-1:

• Seamus

In 3rd place, with a record of 5-4-1:

• Chris (IBBW)
• Brian (IBBW)
• J.Green
• SeanDon
• JS
• login77

In 4th place, with a record of 4-5-1:

• Jamie (IBBW)
• BrendanC
• Mike – VUHoops
• Brian – VUHoops
• abruni09
• kmac
• MikeR
• soccbowler
• McHaler

So there you have it. Sorry for the lack of standings over the first 10 games or so. I’ll try to be better about it. But now, you have an idea of what this looks like.

The new polls are out today, and your Villanova Wildcats have moved all the way up (read: 1 spot) up to #3 in both the AP Poll and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll.

The BIG EAST is still going 3-strong in the Top-10 thanks to ‘Nova, Syracuse and West Virginia. They have 7 teams in the Top 25 thanks to UConn, Georgetown, Louisville and Cincinnati, who made their debut this week at the back end.

Thanks to our good friends at CasualHoya, I today learned about Pollspeak, a site dedicated to keeping the pollsters from being anything but anonymous, and allowing us to rant over their perceived idiocy in regards to the game we love.

I ran a report for Villanova, and it allowed me to to single out some people, which I love. Have we not justified our ranking? Maybe not. Does Duke deserve to be ranked above us after the curb-stomping we gave them last year? Definitely not. Maybe Jon Scheyer has magically figured out the ‘Nova defense and won’t go 3-18 again the next time we meet. I wouldn’t bet on that though.

So here are your list of degenerates. One name will not surprise you at all:

• Tim Hall
• Brian Rosenthal
• Dick Vitale
• Dick Weiss (he actually ranked ‘Cuse #1)
  
• John Bohnenkamp
• John Rohde
• Matt McCoy
• Patrick Stevens
• Tom Keegan
• Jon Wilner
• Roger Clarkson
• Dave Borges and Rich Bozich – special shout out to these two bozos for ranking us all the way down at #8.

Okay, that felt really good. On a day when it was announced that we lost Mouph Yarou for the year, I needed a good rant.

The first polls (preseason doesn’t count) came out today and there was no movement in either for Villanova after their season-opening win over Fairleigh Dickinson. The Cats remained at #5 in the AP Poll and #6 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.

Other teams of note:

• West Virginia (#8 AP, #9 Coaches)
• UConn (#12 AP, #13 Coaches)
• Dayton (#18 AP, #21 Coaches)
• Georgetown (#19 AP, #20 Coaches)
• Louisville (#20 AP, #21 Coaches)
• Georgia Tech (#21 AP, #19 Coaches)
• Maryland (#25 AP, NR Coaches)
• Syracuse (NR AP, #24 Coaches)

Jason King, a writer for Yahoo! Sports, posted his Big East preseason power rankings today.  From my point of view, nothing really too shocking with this list.  Villanova comes in at #1, as King states:

“Most would consider the Wildcats the favorite to win the league title and advance to the Final Four for the second year in a row and just the fourth time in school history.  The decision of point guard Scottie Reynolds to withdraw from the NBA draft was huge for Villanova, which returns its top six perimeter players (although standout Reggie Redding will be ineligible until the spring semester).  The biggest question mark is in the paint, where Duke transfer Taylor King and touted freshman Mouphtaou Yarou will have to make up for the loss of leading scorer Dante Cunningham.”

Enjoy the weekend.

Andy Katz just released his pre-season Top 25 for next year, although he admits that his list will constantly change as more players decide to leave for the NBA or stay in school. Katz does believe that even with the loss of the best senior class in Villanova history, the Wildcats are the team to beat in the Big East next year, ranking them #5 in the country.

“5. Villanova: The Wildcats were one of the most improved teams in the country. Regardless of who returns to Syracuse, Villanova should be the pick in the Big East. Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher and Reggie Redding provide the core for Nova with an infusion of talent arriving led by Maalik Wayns and Dominic Cheek. Losing Dante Cunningham hurts, but the Wildcats’ incoming class can make up for the departure.”

Again, no mention of Taylor King, but I’m not complaining about a player flying under the radar. That really only helps us. I just have to keep telling myself to not believe the hype — yet.

Again, it’s only April. But the top 10 rankings continue to pour in for Villanova as we look ahead to next year. Jeff Goodman of FOX Sports has ranked the Wildcats #3 in his ridiculously early rankings. Goodman admits losing our seniors will hurt, but thinks the plethora of guards, plus the top-flight freshman will keep us a national title contender.

“There’s no doubt that the loss of the senior class will be felt on the Main Line. Cunningham, Anderson and Clark were team guys who won games. However, there’s still plenty of talent back with a loaded backcourt that includes Reynolds and the Coreys — Fisher and Stokes. Redding has turned into a heck of a player, and Jay Wright adds a big-time freshman class with a trio of elite guys — guards Wayns and Cheek in addition to ultra-talented big man Yarou.”

We’ve seen it before — the little guys can win in Jay Wright’s system. Having Reynolds, Fisher, Stokes and Redding isn’t quite Lowry, Nardi, Ray and Foye, but it’s not that far off. And who knows, they could end up being better.

In my mind it is a lot of expect of the freshman to be as big of contributors as everyone is expecting them to be. There are going to be some games (most likely early in the year) where they make our jaws drop. But the Big East (even though it will be way down next year) is a brutal conference.

And the one guy nobody is talking about? Taylor King. The guy is a bonafide high-end college player. He can score with the best of them. We won’t know what we have from him on defense until we see him, but nobody plays for Jay without defense, and I’m sure Taylor is well aware of that.

Damn I’m excited for next year. I just hope we aren’t heading for a Notre Dame-esque situation.

The new writeup for the CBSSports BlogPoll is now up, and editors Jerry Hinnen and Brian Cook have done another fine job. Villanova came in at 10th place, which is up one spot from a week ago.

I was busy during in with the awards this week, winning 1 (I’ll give you one guess) and finishing in the Top 5 for 2 others. I finished in 4th place for Mr. Numb Existence, which is given to the voters with the most similar ballots to the final product. I had a feeling that I would be involved here for some reason, although I really can’t explain it.

Next up, I finished in my usual slot for the Coulter/Kos Award as the most biased voter. Horray for me. Jerry keeps warning me of impending disaster, but I’ll ride the hot streak as long as I can.

“Back for another week on top of the Coulter/Kos chart is Wildcat blog I Bleed Blue and White . For the past two weeks IBBW has tempted fate by running away with the CK Award, only to be curiously rewarded with a string of impressive and/or dramatic ‘Nova wins and now a cushy 3-seed for the ‘Cats at home in Philadelphia. So we’ll see if (or when) IBBW gets the usual brand of CK Award-based comeuppance, but you should know this: the last time ‘Nova received a 3 seed in the East Region was 1995, when the Kerry Kittles-led ‘Cats went down to 14th-seeded Old Dominion in three overtimes. Just sayin’.”

The ‘95 mention is completely uncalled for Jerry, but I doubt we’ll see much of a problem from American. At least I hope so. Okay, yeah, I’m a little concerned now.

Finally, I finished 2nd for Mr. Stubborn. The description of this award is “you’re damn sure you’re right, no matter what reality says.”

I should put that on my business card.

…Thanks to Jerry and Brian for doing this again…we’re off duty for the Tournament, but we’ll be back for one final g0-round after it’s all said in done…I still think we should do it monthly in the off-season…there’s comedy to be had…

In the latest ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, Villanova has risen one spot to #12. After winning the Big East Tournament, Louisville is now the new #1 team in the country (rightfully so).

…I don’t know how Villanova is still ranked below Wake Forest…they are in a complete tailspin it feels like…also, Memphis at #2 makes me sick to my stomach, especially when if you think about it, if Louisville had lost to Syracuse, they’d probably be #1…