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.

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…

A ton of the Villanova greats are back on the Main Line for a 3 day workout that commences today. Kyle Lowry first reported that he was back at school with Randy Foye via his Twitter account, but now The Nova Nation has given us an idea to who else is around for it. The list includes:

• Kyle Lowry
• Randy Foye
• Dante Cunningham
• Mike Nardi
• Chris Charles
• Dwayne Anderson
• Shane Clark
• John Celestand
• Ed Pinckney
• Doug West
• Kerry Kittles

Plus a few more big names from the ‘Nova Network. I have no idea if any of this is open to the public, but if you are on campus, I would try and check it out because it sounds like a lot of fun.

I finally got my copy of Attitude of a Champion today, and finished watching it for the first time a few minutes ago. I’m delving into the bonus features as I post this.

To sum it up in one word is easy: Amazing. An all-around great job by everyone who was involved.

Here are some random thoughts I jotted down while watching it.

Thoughts:

• I got chills at the opening montage. Dwayne’s steal especially. Really took me back to being there at the game.
• Loved the practice video followed by the clips of the team executing in the game. Really gives you a new perspective on the offense that Jay runs.
• Frank Tchuisi never got enough credit for what he brought to the program. The fact that he is staying around the team is huge for the next group of incoming players.
• Jay Wright was absolutely correct about the victory at Seton Hall. Despite Scottie Reynolds’ absurd performance, that win is one of the few team wins you can point out that really sent the team on its way. I never saw a single clip from that game because I was out in Steamboat with Mark, so it was a really a new experience for me.
• Never heard about the team meeting at South Florida before. Another testament to Frank and the rest of the seniors.
• For some reason I always forget the first Pittsburgh game (a great win). Probably because we tailgated out in the freezing rain for 3 hours before it.
• Hilarious that Reggie Redding doesn’t think of himself as a lockdown defender. But I’m glad he’s embraced the role.
• The one memory I have of that Notre Dame game is Dante Cunningham and Shane Clark giving Luke Harangody a crash course in how to play both offense and defense in the post.
• Senior Night was so special.
• I completely forgot about coughing up the lead against Marquette in the Big East Tournament. Yikes.
• If Corey Fisher makes a similar jump in play like he did last year, this next season could be another big year. Same goes for Corey Stokes.
• The Boston trip is one that I will never, ever, forget. One of the most fun, rewarding times in my short life. Words cannot really describe the entire weekend. During the portion of the DVD that covered that part of the season, I had goosebumps the entire time.
• I’m really going to miss both Dante and Dwayne on the floor. They were truly the heart and soul.

If you haven’t purchased your copy of the DVD yet, make you sure head to the Villanova Online Store and do so immediately!

Before getting to my experience this past Thursday night regarding “Attitude of a Champion,” another sports outlet is looking ahead to the college basketball season.  Yahoo! Sports recently posted their bracket projections for the 2010 NCAA Tournament.  For what it’s worth, they have Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, and Villanova as #1 seeds. 

On Thursday, August 6th, I made it to the 7:30 pm showing of “Attitude of a Champion” in the Connelly Center Cinema on the campus of Villanova.  My guess is this auditorium seats about 200 people, and there were about 40 people in the room for this particular viewing.  The only person I knew was Scott Graham, who produced and narrated the documentary for Wipeout Productions.  He introduced himself to the audience in the beginning, and I immediately recognized his voice from the show, “Inside Villanova Basketball,” which airs weekly throughout the season.  Graham mentioned that the idea for the documentary took form in the very beginning of the season.  As he put it, “We wanted to have snip-its, just in case something big happened.  Well, something big did happen.”  He also mentioned how it was the most fun he’s ever had on a project and wishes he was still working on it.  Anyways, the airing I saw was 56 minutes in length.  It follows the team’s journey throughout the season, through the ups and downs, the peaks and valleys.  More importantly, though, the team’s seniors, Dante Cunningham, Frank Tchuisi, Dwayne Anderson, and Shane Clark, truly are the focal point of the video, just like they were on the team.  Watching the documentary made me want to go back and re-live the amazing ride it was.  Everything, from the footage to the narration to the interviews, was excellent.  After the airing, I purchased the DVD outside the Cinema for $20.  It will be made available for sale online on August 10th on villanova.com.  Obviously, the 2008-2009 season was an unforgettable one, and the “Attitude of a Champion” video truly encapsulates how special of a year it was.  In my opinion, a definite must-see.

(Note: This is the second installment of our 4-part series honoring the senior class. It’s been a while since our piece on Frank Tchuisi, but we’ve been extremely busy with that whole graduating thing. Apologies)

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A career that wasn’t even supposed to be. A career filled with injury after injury. This is the career of Shane Clark. What has he done for this program? Basically, everything, literally. Whether it was rebounding, scoring, defending the opposing team’s best player, diving for a loose ball on a bad knee, leading the younger guys, Shane Clark did it all.

I can remember him my freshman year playing sparingly for the Foye, Ray, Lowry team. He wasn’t the star, but he always played a solid game. This has held true of Shane throughout his years at Villanova. I was the idiot who wanted him benched early this season, but he shut me up real quick. He may have single-handedly beaten Pittsburgh twice this year. The first game at the Spectrum, it seemed like he grabbed every offensive rebound, keeping possession after possession alive. In the Elite 8, he drilled 3 trifectas in the first ten minutes, when nobody else on the team could score.

Every team needs a Shane Clar, for all the little things, for all the things that go unnoticed. Dante Cunningham echoes the same feelings I have about Shane.

“He’s the glue,” Cunningham said. He’s given 110 percent dedication to this program. Anytime you need something done on the court, Shane will do it. He’s just shown such a great attitude on how to get things done.”

-Brian

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Being from Maryland, when I first heard Shane was coming to ‘Nova due to a gaffe in his application to Maryland, all I could do was laugh. I have many friends that go to UMD and always try to brag about the ACC. This way I could always fire back at them about how we stole their top recruit.

Shane was a significant contributor in his freshman year for one of the most talented teams in Villanova history. Ovr the next 3 years, except for a 5 game stretch when he averaged 20 points per game, Shane kind of hung around in the shadows making those important contributions that nobody really ever talked about. After his freshman year he switched his number to 20, and I felt I had to help him get some recognition so I joined the small group of people who have bought his jersey.

This year my friends and I had a great nickname for Shane Clark — “The Shark.” A nice little mix of his name describes exactly how he played for Villanova. He played with a quiet tenacity that usually ends up with him making a great game changing play. During our tournament run he played a vital role, and no doubt smelled blood in the water. We’re going to miss the shark attack next year, and can only hope we find someone who is willing to sacrifice the spotlight to do the small things necessary for victory.

-Mark

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When the news about Shane Clark coming to Villanova broke, I remember everyone talking about how we were getting that game-changing type of player — one that could take over when the then senior class graduated. Looking back on his career, we didn’t get the 20-point-a-game scorer that he flashed a few times, but something much better. We got a guy who affected the game in so many different ways that it was almost hard to keep track of.

He helped lock down Kevin Durant in a huge win over Texas, he’d fly through the lane for a tip-slam on countless ocassions, he developed a prowess for offensive rebounds unlike anyone I’ve ever seen, and he set the tone early vs. Pittsburgh in the Elite 8 this past year with lights-out shooting. And he did all this while battling multiple injuries and sicknesses.

Some will always say that Shane Clark never lived up to his initial hype, as if that were some kind of indictment of him as a player. But in reality he was a part of one of the most successful periods in Villanova history. He is a part of the winningest senior class of all time. And most importantly he brought it every night and never complained about his role. In today’s world of the massive ego amongst the players in sports, it’s always refreshing to see the consumate team player. Shane Clark represents just that, and is a large part of Villanova’s sustained success.

-Chris

There’s a short video clip on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia featuring Dante Cunningham and Jay Wright giving their thoughts on the recent historic season.  It was posted on April 22nd, so I assume it comes from the banquet held that day.  Dante has been reflecting on the season, and so has Jay, but Jay said it hasn’t set in what this senior class has meant to the program. 

It still hasn’t really set in yet for me either, and I don’t think it will until next year when the freshman come in and maybe suffer through some first year struggles.  This is where Dante, Dwayne Anderson, Shane Clark, and Frank Tchuisi truly excelled, as every time they suffered some sort of setback, they persevered and overcame the hardships. 

I wasn’t able to attend the banquet (back home for more interviewing! Woo-hoo!) but thanks to VUHoops, we have an account of the evening’s awards.

• Reggie Redding won the Paul Arizin Award for ‘Most Improved Player.’
• Corey Stokes won the Alexander Severance Award for ‘hard work and dedication in the classroom and demonstrating a commitment to reaching his full potential.’
• Frank Tchuisi won the Jake Nevin Award for ’selflessness and providing an outstanding example to his teammates.’
• Dante Cunningham and Scottie Reynolds were co-winners of the Most Outstanding Player Award.
• Dwayne Anderson and Shane Clark were co-winners of the Villanova Basketball Award.

…Definitely agree on the award for Redding…the Stokes award is great and hopefully keeps his confidence growing…I think we are all hoping that he can step up and fill Anderson’s role next year, and he did show massive improvement on defense and with his rebounding…

…Naturally, Anderson and Clark get the ‘Villanova Basketball’ award…those guys were definitely the glue, and we are really going to miss them next year, whether you want to believe it or not…

Game recap and box score if you missed the game.

Sometimes, you just have to tip your hat and admit that the other team is just better. Some people will look at this game and be upset and get mad, but in reality North Carolina is a great program, with great players, and a phenomenal coach. Villanova is getting better in all those categories every day, but last night the Tar Heels were just better.

Be proud. Stand tall.

Ty Lawson completely lived up to the hype surrounding him. His 22 points and 8 assists felt like a lot more, and he was a nuisance to ‘Nova all evening. Wayne Ellington seemingly could not miss a shot, and finished 5-7 from downtown. His game was a harsh reminder of what the Philly product could have meant for Villanova.

Danny Green made the shots when he was left open, and Tyler Hansbrough got to the line often enough to finish with 18 points and 11 rebounds.

I could dissect this game on Villanova’s end and tell you who played bad and who played well, but it really came down to the fact that once again in the Tournament, ‘Nova should poorly from the outside, and they did not play defense and did not rebound well. The latter two especially have been instrumental in their tournament run and their season as a whole. It failed them last night and the Heels took full advantage of it.

Scottie Reynolds had a team-high 17 points, but it was on an awful 6-18 shooting, including a porous 3-11 from behind the arc. I’m not a Reynolds basher at all, but when it’s not your night shooting the ball, you need to find other ways to help the team win. There have been nights this season where Reynolds has done just that, but not in this game.

His backcourt mate Corey Fisher did a great job getting into the lane, but the ball wouldn’t fall for him. And on more than one occasion the refs blatantly refused to call a foul, even as Fisher was getting mugged. His 5-19 effort looks bad on paper, but I liked his initiative on offense. Sometimes the ball doesn’t drop.

Reggie Redding seemed to be the only Wildcat to find some consistent offense, including from the outside, yet he only played 29 minutes and was never in foul trouble. If he is the team’s smartest player (I believe that) and one of their best playmakers (I also support that), Jay Wright’s reluctance to play him more was certainly a head-scratcher.

Dante Cunningham started off well, but North Carolina did a good job taking him out of the game. Dwayne Anderson’s shots wouldn’t fall if the hoop was a foot wider. Again, just that kind of night.

But let’s not forget what this team did. How many of you expected a Final Four appearance at the beginning of the year? Probably just the team did, and they met their goals.

As a fellow senior with the 4 guys on the team, I was crushed last night after the loss. But I don’t want to sulk about the loss. This team was amazing, and I couldn’t be more proud of them. Dante Cunningham has turned himself into a possible 1st round draft pick. Shane Clark fought through an injury-riddled career to become one of my favorite players. Dwayne Anderson might be the best story this school will ever have. And Frank Tchuisi never stopped giving all he could for his team and his school.

So don’t feel bad and cry over this loss. This team accomplished so much more, and they deserve to be celebrated. I’m as proud to be a Villanova fan as I ever have. These guys have continued to raise the bar for the program, and leave as the best senior class Villanova has ever had. Congrats boys!

I rewatched the win over Pittsburgh for the first time tonight, and I can’t tell you how enjoyable it was. Not only to see the game from a different angle, but you just pick up on so much more than when you are there. At the game, I was an out of control lunatic screaming and jumping and cheering. I couldn’t analyze what was happening at all. Now I finally can. Here are some more thoughts.

• With 12 minutes left in the 1st half, Shane Clark had outscored Pitt 9-8. I cannot overstate how huge he was early in the game. His three triples deserved a Puuurrreee call from Gus Johnson. None of them touched the rim.
• With just over 8 minutes left in the 1st half, Sam Young scored to get Pitt within 5. Jay Wright immediately called timeout. Great job there to stop things before Pitt made a huge run.
• We did not shoot well at all, and still put 78 points on Pitt, and won. I’m very, very impressed by that.
• We stopped attacking the rim near the end of the first half, and that is why we were losing at the half.
• Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery did a phenomenal job calling this game, although I thought the last play could have been better called.
• At the game, I thought Sam Young killed us. After watching him play, he destroyed us. We harrassed him, double teamed him, poked him in the eye, stepped on his toes, everything. He was just that good.
• I will not miss Levance Fields, Sam Young, and possibly even DeJuan Blair at all. Good luck to them, and good riddance. I hated playing them. They are freaking good.
• Corey Stokes made one three, but it was a big one.
• Dwayne Anderson was ice cold all night, and then came up huuuuuuuuge down the stretch.
• The last play will be played for years and years. I’ll never forget that moment. It was pure heroics by Reggie Redding, Dante Cunningham and most of all Scottie Reynolds.
• I love this team.