I Bleed Blue and White

I was just reading NBE’s latest Big East Recruiting Notebook and there was some curious news about 2010 commit Markus Kennedy nestled in there. According to NBE, Kennedy is expected to come back from injury and get back to playing hoops soon.

“Winchendon’s Markus Kennedy (6-9 C/Yeadon, Pa.) is supposed to come off crutches today and hopes to be back on the floor shortly. Staff from Villanova are expected in to visit him again this week.”

I had no idea he was hurt, much less on crutches. That’s a little concerning, although it may have just been an oversight on my part. But in either case, it sounds like he is nearly healthy again and should get back on the court in short order.

…If you read NBE’s report start-to-finish you’ll also notice they mention that ‘Nova has had some contact with 2011 SF Angel Nunez from The Bronx…probably a backup plan to Mike Gilchrist for now, but it’s good to see the staff continue to be thorough in recruiting…

In a post to his blog for ESPN, Andy Katz updates us on the draft process for Scottie Reynolds. Reynolds has now worked out for 4 teams, and is schedule for a league-wide workout as we previously mentioned. According to Reynolds, he wouldn’t be against staying in the draft if he felt he’d be a 2nd-round pick, but no final decisions have been made.

UPDATE: Maalik Wayns will not be having surgery. Andy Katz got a hold of a bad rumor.

…If you click through to Katz’s post the Villanova info is about 2/3 of the way down the page…still rooting for Scottie to do well, but still under the impression that he’ll return for his senior season…

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.

Going completely off of his Facebook status – God don’t you just love Facebook stalkers? Lord knows I do – it looks like Maalik Wayns headed to the Doctor today to check on the progress of his injured knee. I would assume that this rules him out of the Catholic Championship tonight, barring of course a Willis Reed like moment. I’ll post updated info as I see it.

After going down early in last night’s victory with Syracuse, UConn’s Jerome Dyson has been diagnosed with a torn lateral meniscus, and will have surgery. This could end Dyson’s season. He had been averaging 13.2 points per game for the Huskies, and was one of the most dynamic guards in the Big East.

Is Dyson done for the year?

…Well I’m not going to lie, this is a huge shot to UConn’s national title hopes if he’s gone for the season…then again, I think he’ll be back…I was raised a UConn fan so I’ve still got a soft spot for them (as I’ve said before) and it’s awful to see any player go down…Dyson is a great slasher and scorer and plays so hard…actually come to think of it he reminds me of Villanova players when he’s on the court…

If you’ve been reading around the Villanova blog network in the last week, you may have heard that Maalik Wayns suffered some type of knee injury. It appears that the news appears of the “good” variety (if injuries can have good news).

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that Wayns will miss just 2-5 weeks, while The Daily News reports that an ACL injury has been ruled out, but the meniscus is still in play.

Wayns and his Roman Catholic teammates were scheduled to play Chester at The Pavilion tonight. It would have been great to get a glimpse of the future, but it looks like that will have to wait.

Hopefully Wayns has a safe and speedy recovery.