I Bleed Blue and White

I’ll freely admit it. As I watched Scottie Reynolds drive into triple-coverage, only to kick out to Isaiah Armwood who promptly jacked up a 3, I yelled the title of this post to nobody. As I texted with friends that our two best sharp shooters (King and Stokes) had both fouled out, the last person I expected to be taking what would be the game-winning shot was a guy who has been surrounded with redshirt questions.

A quiet game from Stokes couldn't derail 'Nova.

Let me just say, I was NOT a person advocating a redshirt for him. I love his athleticism and think he’ll be useful this year the way Dante Cunningham and Shane Clark were their freshman years. But I will admit I was not happy as I watched our wiry 6′8″ freshman launch a trey-ball. But I was ECSTATIC when he buried it. And for that Isaiah, I apologize. I doubted you for the slightest of moments, and you turned around and put the double-bird to my face. I love it.

The bigger story, in my opinion, is the resiliency that the team showed today. Corey Fisher was 1-14 from the field, yet 14-18 from the foul line. Scottie Reynolds had 8 turnovers in the 1st half, yet let the team in scoring and in my opinion led the team well down the stretch. We lost Corey Stokes, Taylor King, Antonio Peña and Maurice Sutton to fouls, yet still battled til the end to erase what felt like a 20-point deficit at times. We went 23-39 (59%) from the FT line and somehow won.

And we did all this without Mouphtaou Yarou, who was sent home hours before the game for an infection. Our lineup that end the game was Reynolds, Fisher, Maalik Wayns, Dominic Cheek, and Armwood. Think about that for a second.

(I just had a wow moment. We had 4 legitimate shooters on the floor, and Armwood. Armwood took the 3. And made it. His balls are the size of planets.)

Some more random thoughts from today:

• Jay Wright, you better suit-the-f*ck-up next game. No more of this untucked Polo crap. I don’t like it, and neither does anyone else. Stick with what works.
• If I’m ever going to criticize Jay, it’s going to be now. Yeah, I know we won, but I think he mismanaged an already thin frontcourt. He basically let his entire frontcourt foul out before inserting Armwood. It worked out, but give the kid some burn instead of letting everyone rack up the fouls.
• Maalik Wayns woke the team up in the first half. We were about to get run out of the gym until he came in. I love the kid. He is a serious, serious player. Jay wasn’t kidding when he said Wayns was ready to play.
• Maurice Sutton stepped up big. As soon as Yarou was out, Sutton’s # was called, and he answered. All over the place on the glass and the defensive end. The offensive game will come, but for now, he’s doing exactly what we need him to do.
• The refs were brutal, and I’m glad we overcame them. It wasn’t the amount of calls (which was excessive) but more the amount of ticky-tack stuff that was called, especially on us. I thought Jay was going to have a stroke. If Pat Chambers were still on the staff, I’m pretty sure he would have bitten a refs ear off.
• Fran Fraschilla has briefly replaced Andy Katz as my most hated ESPN Hoops personality. He may as well have come out and root for George Mason. It was sickening and a disgrace to his profession. Fran, go home.

All in all, a great win to have. George Mason are a scrappy bunch, and they’ll make noise this year. They’re pretty good. If you hadn’t heard, Dayton blew a 9-point lead only to come back and stave off Georgia Tech in the early game today, so we’ve got the Flyers tomorrow at 3 p.m. I’ve got a Q&A coming up with a Dayton blogger, so stay tuned!

A note to everyone on Twitter – I had a great time chatting with you during the game today and hopefully we can do it again in the near future. I’m just happy that I didn’t get a 24-hour ban for over-Tweeting like Brian of VUHoops!

UPDATE: Apparently Brian has been reinstated. No word on what sexual acts he had to perform.

There is a phenomenal, must-read. article today in the USA Today about Scottie Reynolds and his search for his birth-mother. If you did not know, Reynolds was adopted as an infant by a family in Alabama, who then moved to Herndon, Virginia.

The article discusses Scottie’s internal-battle on when to seek out his mother, as well as difficulties he’s faced from grade-school til now because of it.

It really brings Scottie’s journey into perspective and makes you appreciate even more all that he has accomplished in his life. Below is an excerpt from the article, but make sure you take the time and read the whole thing.

Reynolds has flourished in basketball — he is on pace to surpass 2,000 career points — despite enduring potshots on the road from opponents’ fans over his adoption. Reynolds says at times he has been jeered with the title words of the punk rock song Scotty Doesn’t Know.

“It’s as bad as I’ve ever heard,” Villanova coach Jay Wright says. “There are times I want to go after somebody, but Scottie sets the example.”

Reynolds, he says, has never acknowledged the taunts, nor has he complained privately.

“It’s never affected his play,” Wright says. “It’s amazing.”

Some players might be tempted, in light of the harassment, to gloat after a victory or great play, but Reynolds doesn’t play that way, the coach adds.

“I’ve talked to the team about it and said, ‘You all hear it,’ ” Wright says. ” ‘We all feel for Scottie, but the way he handles it shows how strong he is and how strong we can be.’ ”

Reynolds says that in his sophomore year, he heard cracks in a game at Pittsburgh that he found especially mean-spirited.

“Some of the stuff I’d never heard before,” he says. He listened for the first time to jabs about the biological father he assumes he will never know.

“That’s the only time it really got to me,” he says. He wanted to act out but instead went into the locker room to keep his cool.

Reynolds says he has learned to compartmentalize his emotions to keep them in check. He chooses his words carefully when he speaks and says his reactions are programmed.

“If I didn’t have mental toughness and know how to turn it on and off, I probably would have cried at Pitt,” he says. “For me to do that in a big game … that’s not going to help anybody.”

Scottie Reynolds graced the cover for Sports Illustrated’s annual College Basketball preview. I’m guessing this is the Northeast Regional version, but not sure exactly. Good for you Scottie. Hopefully no curses come from this.

The issue hits news stands tomorrow. Luckily I’ve got my sources at SI and have the Villanova preview in my hands already!

8:57 pm eastern time: Game just ended.  Villanova Wildcats defeat Penn Quakers 103-65.  Some notes on the game below.

1. Cats came out strong tonight, unlike the other night against Fairleigh Dickinson, jumping out to quick 15 point lead, which all but deflated any hopes Penn had of an upset
2. Halftime score: 55-25
3. Nova shot an absurd 58% from the field, 51% from downtown, and 78% from the free throw line for the game, while holding the Quakers to 36% from the field and 29% from 3 point range
4. Six Villanova players scored in double figures: Malik Wayns (very impressive thus far) with 16, Corey Stokes, Scottie Reynolds, and Taylor King all with 14, Corey Fisher with 13, and Antonio Pena with 12 
5. Darren Smith had 21 for Penn, but sharpshooter Tyler Bernardini put up a goose egg (credit Corey Stokes for shutting him down)
6. Most important stat of the game aside from those shooting percentages: Cats outrebounded Penn 41-18

In other Big East college basketball action, Cincinnati leads Prairie View A & M by 4 early in the 2nd half, South Florida leads Virginia by 12 in the 2nd half, Notre Dame is up 14 over St. Francis with 5 minutes left, and Colgate and UConn are just under way in Storrs.  Kentucky barely escaped the Red Hawks of Miami (Ohio), winning 72-70.  Much more in-depth analysis to come. 

Note: I’m going to be doing my postgame reports a little different this year. More reactions and opinions, less reporting.

My excitement could hardly be contained all day as I sat in my office. And this was all knowing that I wouldn’t be able to watch the first half of the game. Hey, Villanova basketball is back. A light goes on in me. I didn’t think anything could get me down. This, of course, proved to be untrue.

Taylor King impressed in his debut.

I arrived at Grand Central Station ready to catch the 6:29 train when I discover that the train hasn’t even arrived yet, with just 10 minutes until it’s scheduled departure. Finally, at 6:30, it arrives and I hustle on board. The conductor tells everyone to get off, saying the police need to search the train. Fabulous.

After a quick search (seriously, if you are going to search the train with SWAT, be thorough) we depart and I settle in. Around 6:55 I have an epiphany that I can listen to the game on my phone by downloading a radio application. I do this, and tune into 950-AM in Philadelphia, the station that usually broadcasts ‘Nova games. To my dismay, some asshole is talking about Donovan McNabb sucks and he wishes he would just quit. Now, maybe the game wasn’t on the radio, but I was 99% positive that it was, and this really set me off.

So now with just seconds until the tip, I try to load ESPN’s GameCast onto my Blackberry. “Data Not Available.” As 10-12 people around me at the time can attest, this caused an audible curse and a slammed fist into the back of the seat in front of me. I mean, really? I follow football and basketball games all the time on my phone, and never have a problem. Then again, it was Friday the 13th, and something was bound to go wrong.

So as a last resort, I finally load up my Twitter account and begin to follow the game thanks to brianisawesome, dgoneil1, and VillanovaBBall. Many thanks to all 3 of you, who legitimately kept me informed about the 1st half.

But oh no, from there the trouble wasn’t over. I finally get home with the 2nd half about to start and begin to get the backdoor feed going on my computer. Now, keep in mind this is a new computer that doesn’t have all my necessary add-ons installed yet. So I need to install Microsoft Silverlight to watch the game. Fine, this will take 20 seconds. But oh no, the file is corrupt! I have no idea what this means. And I was very angry for hours as I watched updates on ESPN’s bottom-line. As I said, ‘Nova basketball turns a switch on.

So I didn’t get to see any of the game. Until RFC brilliantly uploaded the highlights just hours after the game. Phenomenal. I really went from a completely angry person to a very euphoric person — all because of highlights. In the end, nothing could spoiler the opener for me, even if I didn’t get to see it. I did get to talk to some people who did see it, and take a few notes from the highlight tape. Here we go:

• Heard from multiple people that Antonio Peña had a crappy game? Really? 9 points and 10 rebounds seems pretty solid to me. FT’s (3-6) continue to be a problem but I think I’ll take a (near) double-double from ‘Tone every night.
• As much as I like hearing that Scottie Reynolds was managing the offense, I like hearing even more that he’s got 2o points or more. Terrible shooting night for the senior and I’m sure he’ll rebound nicely soon, but I don’t want to see too many of these games this year.
• Corey Stokes! Looks like he’s taken a big leap forwards in terms of leadership, defense, and scoring. Yes, the majority of his points were of the long-range variety but that and-1 finish was great and it wasn’t the only time he attempted to get into the lane.
• Taylor King! Heard from a lot of people that he has the best game out of everyone. Enthusiastic, great rebounding, and scoring to boot. That 3 he launched from the corner was one of the quickest releases I’ve ever seen. So smooth. TK looks like he’s going to be big for us this year.
• Corey Fisher looks like he’s in better shape (again) and legitimately looks like a guy who will challenge for 1st-team All-BIG EAST. He just looks so much more confident than he already was.
• Dominic Cheek just looks like a basketball player. Super smooth. Mouphtaou Yarou looked better than I expected, and at the same time I was a little disappointed. Can’t decide. Maalik Wayns doesn’t look like a freshman, nor play like one. He’s the real deal. Hopefully I’ll get to see some Isaiah Armwood next game. Love that he played. Don’t redshirt him!
• Maurice Sutton may be ready to contribute sooner than we thought.
• Seriously, Reggie Redding isn’t back yet. How friggan deep are we?

All in all, I just loved seeing the first game. It’s a joy to finally have ‘Nova basketball back. I’m excited for the year and ready for the ride!

9:13 pm eastern time: Game just ended.  Interesting opener to say the least.  Final score-Villanova 84 Fairleigh Dickinson 61

• Very, very sluggish start for the Cats, as FDU only trailed 35-34 at the half
• Defense shut down the Knights in the second half, only allowing 27 points
• Terence Grier and Mike Scott with big games for Fairleigh Dickinson, putting up 17 and 15 points, respectively
• Corey Stokes accounted for 20 points on 5-11 shooting from downtown, Corey Fisher with 13 and 4 assists, and Antonio Pena with 9 points and 10 boards
• Scottie Reynolds built a small brick house tonight, as he had 8 points on 2-10 shooting, including 0-4 from 3-pt range

Much more in-depth analysis on the way.  By the way, Seton Hall beat St. Peter’s 53-51, and as of right now, Pittsburgh is down 13 to Wofford early in the second half.

Whenever a team loses upperclassmen to graduation, someone else has to step up.  For Villanova, that someone is Scottie Reynolds.  This may seem obvious, but with the suspension of Reggie Redding, Reynolds has everyone looking up to him for guidance, which Terry Toohey of the Delco Times points out.

Jay Wright on Scottie’s leadership thus far:

He’s a tremendous leader.  He’s like an NBA veteran.  That’s how much respect he has.  Everyone on the team looks up to him and Scottie takes that responsibility serious.  I was away one day in September and I called him up to see what was going on.  He was in the video room with our freshmen going over our defensive concepts.

Reynolds, discussing that specific day:

That was just something I felt I had to do.  We were doing all these things on the court that they had never seen before so I decided to take them up and show they what we were trying to do.  I showed them the Duke game (from the NCAA Tournament).  We weren’t perfect in that game.  We made mistakes, but we worked hard and we did it together.  That’s what made that group so special.  We knew we were going to work hard and work together.

Reynolds will certainly be a focal point for both teams tomorrow night, as the young Wildcats will be looking to feed off Scottie’s experience, while the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights will definitely try to prevent a big scoring outburst from the senior guard.  Scottie will be a key in just about every game this season, and ESPN’s Andy Katz can’t wait to see Reynolds against Maryland, as this is one of his “25 games you’ll want to see” this year.  Katz also looks forward to the big showdown with the Mountaineers in early March at the Wachovia Center. 

Dec. 6: Villanova vs. Maryland, BB&T Classic (FSN): Villanova is probably overrated, while Maryland isn’t getting enough publicity.  This game in Washington D.C., matches Scottie Reynolds against Greivis Vasquez in one of the better playmaker games.

March 6: West Virginia at Villanova (CBS): The top two teams meet for, perhaps, the Big East title in the last game of the season.  The Big East schedule makers got this one right, just like Pitt and Connecticut last season. 

Overrated according to Katz?  To each their own.  We’ll just have to wait and see. 

They went to the Final Four last year, so they should return this year.  They have one of the best recruiting classes in the country, so they should be one of the most talented teams this year.  The Big East is weaker this year, so they should be right at the top by season’s end.  These statements have been heard and seen throughout the offseason.  Of course, everyone wants to see another magical season, but it’s not going to happen overnight and no group knows that better than the 2009-2010 Villanova squad. 

As Jay Wright puts it:

How do we handle it?  We’ve got to do what we always do.  It sounds boring, but we’ve got to understand that this is a new team.  This isn’t the team that went to the Final Four.  That’s not a bad thing, but this team has to prove themselves.

Scottie Reynolds adds:

If we can just fight human nature, and stay humble and hungry and focus on the little things that will create big opportunities for us, I think everything will work out.

With the big expectations for this season, there are flaws nonetheless.  Rivals analyzed the biggest flaws of the country’s elite teams.

Jason King on Villanova:

The graduation of Dante Cunningham, Dwayne Anderson and Shane Clark has left the Wildcats thin in the frontcourt, where Antonio Pena is the only returnee with significant experience.  Pena averaged 5.1 points off the bench last season.  Villanova is hoping for big contributions from 6-foot-10 freshman Mouphtaou Yarou, who is expected to start at center.

Mike Huguenin on the Cats:

If coach Jay Wright could enact a rule saying teams can’t have anyone taller than 6 feet 4, I’d bet he would do it.  The Wildcats will have one of the best – if not the best – backcourts in the nation. But the frontcourt is a monster question.  If some freshman big men don’t come through, the Wildcats will finish third or fourth in the Big East.

Don’t freak out by Huguenin’s comments of finishing 3rd or 4th in the Big East.  If they finish 3rd or 4th and end up making a deep run in March and April, I’ll take that all day.  First thing’s first though: Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday.

Mike Sheridan’s latest ‘Nova Notebook focuses on Jay Wright and the lack of defense that was exhibited by the Wildcats in their win over Kutztown last Thursday. According to Wright, the graduation of Shane Clark, Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham, along with the suspension of Reggie Redding, is a huge part of what went wrong on opening night.

“That’s the sign of a young team,” said Wright. “A young team looks at the scoreboard and it only has to change your intensity a little bit for there to be a drop off. You have to give (Kutztown) credit – they made shots and they pushed the ball at us. It’s just the little things with young guys. You score and they’re jogging back remembering their score and Kutztown was pushing it right at us. We need to learn that lesson.”

Wright believes that the team will improve as the year goes on however. Scottie Reynolds shared that sentiment, and believes it is up to the veteran players to show the younger guys what playing Villanova basketball is all about.

“We have to continue to stay to our principles and stay with what Coach (Wright) preaches,” said the senior guard, who’ll enter the regular season with 1,620 career points. “We can’t just get lackadaisical. We have to stay focused and that’s going to take time. We have to just keep pounding, keep pounding and never let up. When you let up a team can get hot like that – just look at the score.

“We, as upperclassmen, have to preach what Coach is saying. We have to do it ourselves and let the younger guys watch that happening on the floor so that when they come in, they can pick up where we left off.”

Wright also talks about the debuts of Mouphtaou Yarou and Taylor King in the article.

..As always, great job by Sheridan…

Disclaimer: I was not able to attend or view/listen to this game. All of what follows are opinions of various people that I talked, texted, or followed on Twitter. This is more of a general recap.

From the sound of things, it appears that Villanova fans got a mix of good and bad last night in watching the team defeat Kutztown 110-84 at The Wachovia Center. I’m going to run down a list of what I heard from last night:

The Good:

• Scottie Reynolds – Looked exactly how you thought he would, and maybe even better. Looks leaner and quicker and primed for a real All-American campaign. Had 27 points and 4 assists in 29 minutes of action.
• Corey Fisher – Looks even stronger than last year. His body continues to be redefined from the kid who showed up out of shape as a freshman. Hit a few nice mid-range jumpers after he pulled up in the lane. 18 points and 5 assists for Fisher-Price.
• Corey Stokes – Really aggressive on defense, improved ball skills which allowed him to take his man to the goal and/or pull up and knock down a jumper. Still a lights out shooter.
• Team Shooting – 60% from the field and 63% from downtown. Quite frankly, as one person put it – “we can shoot the f*ckin ball real good.”
• Taylor King – 4-4 from beyond the arc. Played with a lot of passion. Really lost a lot of weight and looks to be in much better shape, although he is definitely a tweener. Looked better defending the post than he did defending out on the arc. From all signs though, he won’t be a defensive liability like some thought and looks like he can help defend inside.
• Antonio Peña – Really improved offensive game. Hit a few nice baby hooks and even knocked down some mid-range jumpers. He isn’t Dante Cunningham (yet), but from all accounts he was one of the stronger players on the court.
• Maalik Wayns - More than one person said he was by far the most impressive of the freshman. Knocked down a 3 for his first career basket and was in the face of people all night. Played with a lot of heart. Him, Reynolds and Fisher sound like they are going to terrorize teams. Sounds like he’ll be a fan favorite.
• Mouphtaou Yarou – Picked up a lot of soft fouls, but was aggressive on offense, which is good to hear. Can’t have him shying away.

The Bad:

• Defense – Apparently, there was very little of it. We expected to have a dropoff with the personnel we lost, but apparently Jay Wright was going absolutely wild at a few points during the game. Not good. One person tweeted “we play defense like a mid-level ACC team.” Ouch.

The Puzzling:

• Dominic Cheek – Only 14 minutes of action for the true frosh. Heard he has the skills and the desire, but lacks the strength. Still, thought he would get more action with Redding out. King appears to be ahead of him by a good amount. This doesn’t look good for my predictions on him.
• Maurice Sutton – Just 4 minutes of playing time for the big man. For a team that has an unknown frontcourt, you’d figure he’d get a little more run in an exhibition game. Oh well. Think we all need to temper our expectations on him this year.

At the end of the day, the team did what they were supposed to do. They blew out Kutztown, who never really had a chance. The defense is a huge concern to me personally, because that is what the backbone of Villanova teams usually is. But you’ve got the offense. From all accounts it could be one of the best in the country if they can get consistent production out of the frontcourt.