I Bleed Blue and White

With the NBA Draft in the rearview mirror now, let’s take a look at what some people are saying about Dante Cunningham going 33rd overall to the Portland Trailblazers. 

• Most importantly, Dante knows he must continue to work hard. 
• Villanova coach Jay Wright thinks Dante is a good fit for the Trailblazers.
• Trailblazers GM Kevin Pritchard and coach Nate McMillan got the players they wanted, including Cunningham.
• The Big East was the best conference last season, and it shows with 9 players from the conference being selected in the draft. 

We want to hear your reactions as well, so feel free to leave some comments.

Dante Cunningham was just selected with the 33rd overall pick by the Portland Trail Blazers! Cunningham was the 3rd pick of the 2nd round in this year’s draft.

Cunningham joins a solid young nucleus for an up and coming team. Really, you have to love how things worked out for Dante (assuming he stays there). He went higher than expected, and landed in a great situation.

…Obviously, Dante will most likely come off the bench behind Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge to start his career…that’s a great situation for him though…

…On a completely random side note, Commissioner Stern handed over the duties of announcing the draft picks to his Deputy Commissioner…this guy is so excited to be in the limelight that after every sentence he puts on this clownish grin and looks around the room for approval…high comedy…

UPDATE: The Blazers just took Jon Brockman out of Washington. They then ended up trading Brockman to Sacramento for the rights to Jeff Pendergraph. That makes a crowded frontcourt that already included Joe Pryzbilla in addition to Oden and Aldridge. Still, I think there is a huge opportunity for Dante to grab some serious PT. His game fits that team perfectly and he should be able to provide a lot of energy off the bench in addition to his solid defense and improving offensive game.

Although not official, all signs are pointing to a deal that would send Randy Foye to the Washington Wizards.  In addition to Foye, Mike Miller would go to the Wizards, while the Minnesota Timberwolves would get Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila, Oleksiy Pecherov, and the # 5 pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft.  If the deal goes through, the T-Wolves would have back-to-back lottery picks this Thursday at # 5 and # 6.

Added by Chris:

…Not to mention they have 2 more 1st round picks…talk about a major overhaul…

…Glad to see Foye moving back farther East…he won’t see as many looks playing with Gilbert Arenas (Mark’s man-crush) but it should help him develop as an NBA guard…congrats Randy…

…But as a Knicks fan, I’m not happy that the T-Wolves just one-upped us to snag the 5th pick…

As the NBA Draft rapidly approaches, prospects, especially projected 2nd-rounders, try to get in as many workouts as possible for various teams.  Recently, Dante Cunningham has worked out for the Charlotte Bobcats on June 12th, the Utah Jazz on June 15th, and he has a workout scheduled with the Portland Trailblazers today, June 17th.  After these workouts, the media caught up with Dante down in Charlotte and out west in Utah to discuss these sessions. 

ESPN college basketball analyst Joe Lunardi is back with an updated version of his notorious bracketology.   For what it’s worth, Lunardi projects Villanova as a #2 seed, but reading into March Madness projections on June 17th is way too premature to say the least. 

Pat Forde, of ESPN, also came out with his top ten teams for next season.  For Forde, Villanova ranks #2 behind the Kansas Jayhawks.  His take on the Cats:

When Scottie Reynolds re-upped, the Wildcats became Big East favorites and a national title threat. Reynolds returns to join three other key players from last season’s Final Four team, plus coach Jay Wright adds one of the nation’s best recruiting classes and Duke transfer Taylor King. Replacing Dante Cunningham’s points, rebounds and leadership will be the hard part.

As you can see by the title, this post will contain a variety of different things, so I apologize for the randomness.  First, with the deadline to withdraw from the NBA Draft officially over, some new preseason rankings have come out.  Andy Katz has placed Villanova at #4 in his new top 25.  Katz on the Cats,

Corey Fisher and Scottie Reynolds and a highly touted newcomer class means the Wildcats are the pick to win the Big East.  Losing Dante Cunningham hurts, but Jay Wright has this program rolling. There won’t be a dip.

SNY also published their updated Big East rankings for next season with Villanova coming at #1 in the conference.  On Villanova,

Reynolds returns to bolster an experienced core that includes Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes and Reggie Redding.  The Wildcats also feature a top-five national recruiting class that should make Jay Wright’s team the class of the Big East.

While Katz released his opinion on teams for next year, he also came out with a story regarding the World University Games.  Corey Fisher is trying out for the U.S. team competing in the Games, and it looks like he has a good shot to make the team now, as Kansas guard Sheron Collins recently backed out of the tryouts.  Katz on Fisher,

Collins’ absence practically puts a must-get tag on Arizona point guard Nic Wise and Villanova lead guard Corey Fisher. Both players were probably going to make the squad anyway, but now it almost seems like a given.

Katz also mentions in the article that Boston College is trying to schedule a Big East opponent for next season, and Villanova is at the top of their list. 

 The Nova Notebook is back with another offseason feature, entitled “Attitude of a Champion.”  This is the title of the 70-minute DVD that will be coming out in August, which tells the tale of Villanova’s 2008-2009 basketball season and their ultimate run to the Final Four.  The film features behind the scenes footage and interviews throughout the season.  All of Nova Nation will be looking forward to this release later in the summer.     

Lastly, even though many people see Villanova as a national title contender next year, replacing a player like Dante Cunningham will be a tall task.  Recently, Jay Wright and Tony DiLeo (former 76ers head coach) gave their thoughts on Dante’s future in the NBA.  Most notably, they both think he will have a long career, lasting possibly 10 years or more.  The above link will take you to the video page for Comcast SportsNet.  Then, click on the SPORTSNITE tab, and the aforementioned video is from 6/16-Jay Wright on Dante Cunningham’s future in the NBA.

Patrolling over a couple of the draft sites tonight, it appears things are looking good for Dante Cunningham as the NBA Draft approaches. Not that there was ever any doubt in my mind that he would get drafted, but you know how these things are. Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense.

Right now, it appears that Cunningham is going to be a solid 2nd round pick. The more I think about it, I don’t see him sneaking into the 1st round. That’s nothing to be ashamed of though. In my mind, he’s the type of player that Championship teams fill out their benches with. He’s high energy, he can guard inside and out on defense, and he’s got a developing offensive game. What’s not to like about a guy like that in the 2nd round?

In any case, NBADraft.net’s latest mock draft has Dante being taken by the Minnesota T’Wolves with the 47th pick. I’m sure nobody hear would mind Dante rejoining Randy Foye.

According to DraftExpress’s mock, Dante is going to fall a bit further, and will be taken by the Charlotte Bobcats with the 54th pick. I do not wish that on Dante. That’s all I’m going to say on that issue.

Dick Jerardi, a writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, came out with an article today which talks about Scottie Reynold’s decision to return for his senior season.  There are some excellent quotes from Reynolds regarding the NBA Draft process he went through as well as some thoughts about next season.  It sounds like the speculation started to get to Scottie, as he says,

People can stop asking me every time I order something, do something.  Every time, it’s ‘Yo, what are you doing?’

Additionally, Comcast SportsNet caught up with Jay Wright and Scottie at the Davis Center to get some more input from them.  The above link will take you to the video page for Comcast SportsNet.  Then, click on the SPORTSNITE tab and the video is from 6/9-The Wildcats on Reynolds returning to school.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted…but good news for next year’s team. Scottie has officially declared his return for his senior season.

“The best decision for me is to return to Villanova for my senior year,” Reynolds said in a statement released by the school. “I’d like to thank everyone who put their time into helping me get better during these NBA workouts. I especially want to thank my teammates and coaches here for all of their support. I felt like I learned a great deal from this process.

“I’m blessed to be in the situation I am in. I’m happy to be back at Villanova.”

This is phenomenal news for next year’s team who’s early early top-25 ranking was at #6. With a plethora of returning experience and a sudden influx of mega-talent from the #2 recruiting class the next few years the sky’s the limit for the Wildcats program.

With all the focus being on Scottie Reynolds’ upcoming decision, Dante Cunningham’s draft prospects have been put on the back burner (wrongfully so, I might add). Being the New York Knicks fan that I am, I was ecstatic to hear that Cunningham is scheduled for a workout with the Knicks on Tuesday.

As my man Chris Alvino with The Knicks Blog points out, Cunningham could be a great fit for the Knicks if they can acquire a 2nd round pick (which they are absolutely looking to do).

Anyways, checking in with some draft sites today, it still looks like Dante is projecting to an early-to-mid 2nd round pick, which is nothing to be ashamed of. He’ll make whatever team drafts him very happy. He’s got a great attitude, works hard on defense, and has a rapidly developing offensive game.

Here’s to hoping he lands in New York.

Although Scottie Reynolds said he would like to decide sometime this week whether to stay in the NBA Draft or not, he has a workout scheduled at the New Jersey Nets practice facility this weekend.  The Nets are hosting 36 draft prospects for a number of NBA teams to look at.  The workouts begin Friday June 12th and conclude on Sunday June 14th, with each day consisting of two sessions, 6 players per session.  Scottie’s workout is the second-to-last session, on Sunday June 14th at 9:30 am. 

This workout is the day before the deadline (June 15th) to withdraw from the NBA Draft for underclassmen.  Scottie may have already made up his mind, but I assume he will attend the workout anyway, because I would think backing out on a workout does not look good for a prospect.  In other words, maybe his decision won’t be made public until the deadline.