I Bleed Blue and White

Kind of a weird game to watch. I was fired up about the game, and at certain parts it was a really close game. But you know what? I was never really worried about what the final outcome would be. We have better players, a better coach, and our fans were taking over The Palestra fight for noise despite being outnumbered. There’s nothing more comfortable than ESPN flashing to Phil Martelli, clearly searching his pea-sized brain for answers, and then an immediate flash to Jay Wright, who is barking out instructions to his team. In HD, the differences between the two are even more stark, if you catch my drift.

TK's willingness to dunk worked here. In the 2nd half, uhhh...nevermind.

But really, what else can you say about this program. This game is always a dogfight, no matter the talent differences between the two. That is how true rivalries are. But were you ever worried that we would lose? Sure, I didn’t love giving up the double-digit lead late in the 1st half, and I really didn’t like how the refs decided it would be beneficial to blow their whistle so much that the game would take 2 and a half hours, have 52 fouls calls, and 78 free throws attempted between the two teams. But I was never really worried about losing the game. And that’s because our program has reached the level where we have heady seniors every year who can will this team to victory when they need to, along with a cast of underclassmen and newbies who are dying to step up into the spotlight and prove themselves. That’s a good recipe for winning.

And even though we all knew it would happen, it does feel great to know that The Hawk Is Dead for another year. Also, great to see the Hawk students get all riled up, thinking they had a chance. Then depression. That was fun. Onto my notes from the game…

• Had a phenomenal time at the Manhattan GameWatch. Talked to a couple of people who read the blog, always nice to meet new people. Overall the atmosphere was pretty solid. Tons of huge HD TV’s everywhere, people definitely into the game and cheering and moaning with every turn of the game. Even though it was “The Christmas Party” it felt more like “The Let’s All Hate St. Joe’s Party.” That was good to see. Only down side was not being able to hear Bill Raftery. I heard some random shrieks and yells that made me laugh though.
• Scottie Reynolds was the man again last night.  Still turning the ball over a lot, but he makes a lot of things happen as evidenced by his 22 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals effort. Plus 12-14 from the line. As login77 noted in the Jamie’s recap, there was a point in the 2nd half where he looked possessed, Exorcist-style.
• I’m blocking out Taylor King’s missed dunk from my memory. So with that not happening, he played a great game. 20 points and 11 boards, and was just a friggan assassin with those trey’s late in the game. Plus, he really gets the emotional aspect of the game. He gets fired up about everything. There will probably be a point where we say ‘Calm down TK’ but for now, I love it.
• Can’t praise Antonio Peña enough. Before the year we were all hoping for a moderate improvement from ‘Tone. He’s legitimately developed into ‘the man’ down low. I found myself yelling at our team to give him the ball last night, and was not happy when he had to go to the bench for fouls. Nobody could have predicted this season from him.
• We hit 29 straight free throws at one point in the 2nd half. That’s mind-blowing.
• How about Corey Fisher fouling out after not touching a guy. Raf astutely yelled before the replay that it was an awful call and Fisher didn’t touch the guy. Jay Wright proceeded to have blood vessel appear in his forehead. I thought Fish had a decent game. Too many TO’s, not great FG%, but 8-8 from the line and 6 assists. He managed it well.
• Corey Stokes couldn’t buy a bucket, but he did play excellent D again (one of the few who did). I’ll take the D from Stokes right now because last year it was all offense or nothing.
• Maalik Wayns, Dominic Cheek, and Isaiah Armwood all played well in their first Holy War. Wayns was very calm for having to handle the ball as much as he did. Cheek was visibly fired up and aggressive the entire time he was in. Good to see. Armwood has the 18-foot jumper down. When he throws it up, I’m as confident as in him as a TK/Stokes trey at this point.
• Maurice Sutton has hit the skids a little here. He rebounded well last night, but missed a few easy buckets. Interested to see how he handles it and if he can come back and start playing the way he was before.
• Love seeing Reggie Redding sitting behind the bench. You’re almost back medium-sized fella.
• Got real sad everytime they showed Mouphtaou Yarou. What a shitty situation. Stay strong big fella.

…All in all a solid night and a solid win over the assholes…final Big 5 game at Temple on Sunday as we go for the Big 5 sweep…

While my input on the blog has considerably declined since work started, I figured I’d chime in cause its the Holy War.

1.     Just an absolute fun game to watch.  St. Joe’s kept it close but I never really felt threatened as our Offense is just UNBELIEVABLE.  We have so many weapons and options, the only person on the court that can’t go for 20 at any point is Sutton.  Like I said in our season preview, I think we have the talent and unselfishness to have 5 or 6 players averaging 10+.  And man can Taylor King shoot.

2.     Our D…I don’t know whether its due to the pace of the game (cause our offense scores so easily) or if its a sign of things to come, but 89 pts is too many.  When we got a lead, the D started to sag a little.  If St Joes ran a pick and pop play, or a backside screen to the top for a 3, there was no one in the shooters face.  97 pts on offense is amazing, but against a subpar team, I’d rather see a dominating D performance.

3.     Good job applying pressure from the ballhandlers, attacking and drawing fouls.  We had 40 FTs and we got to the double bonus early in the 2nd half.  This is huge because we lack the size to compete with some of the big teams (UConn, Syracuse, Kansas when we meet them for the NCAA championship, etc…).  Getting in the lane should do 1 of 2 things, create foul problems for the backcourt giving us room to shoot or create foul trouble with the helpside big men negating their size and giving us more room to finish.

4.     Are Dom and Wayns World going to be special or what!  They aren’t the focal point of the offense, but they take what they’re giving and don’t force things, and they play great D.  Watching them you just get that feeling that they’re going to do big things.  By the end of the season their contributions will be invaluable.

5.     Probably the most important thing:  I’m undeafeated in the picks.  At least according to me, I could be wrong….

Check in later tonight, I’ll have a BigEast Roundup posted around 8 or so.

And somebody tell that damn bird to stop flapping its wings.  GO NOVA!

Villanova 97

Safety School 89

SEND IT IN SOUTHPAW!

Given the importance and excitement of tonight’s game, I’m going to have a more in-depth look at this season’s edition of the “Holy War” first thing in the morning. Until then, I’m going to hand it off to the greatest color man in the business, Bill Raftery.

“King is not just a pretty face out there! Shootin’ that deep one! That is a gorgeous delivery to Pena. Send it in big fella!! … Or lay it in… “

– Raft referring to a sweet Taylor King pass to Pena in the 2nd Half

I mean what else can be said about the kid? 20 points and 9 rebounds ain’t half bad, right? Its obvious that we at IBBW have had a man crush on TKing for awhile now and he just continues to mature and grow as a player on a nightly basis. Now, obviously he’s not without his faults as we witnessed on that failed dunk attempt in the 2nd half. However, as I’ll get into more tomorrow, King, Pena and Scottie have a nice thing working at the moment with the offense and it’ll be interesting to see which way the team moves as tougher contests lay ahead.

“How ’bout that?? With a little blessing from above!” – Raft on the circus runner in the lane by Scottie Reynolds to start the 2nd Half

I know Chris has pointed it out, but man how lucky are we that Scottie is still around as a Senior? Tonight was a typical game by the Senior from Virginia as Reynolds held the team together throughout his 22 point performance at the Palestra. At around the 6 minute mark in the 2nd Half, I said to myself that Scottie needed to take over this game if we were to hold on and come out victorious. Glad to see he did just that. Oh and of course there was the “OMFG SCOTTIE DON’T SHOOT THAT….I MEAN THAT’S A GREAT SHOT SCOTTIE!” moment just to put a bow on his career against my Safety School.

“Well thats transition D at its best… Don’t give up anything easy. You think they got an easy one…… GET OUT OF TOWN!!!” – Raft on the Pena block around the 8 minute mark in the 1st Half

Pena continues to shine as he has all season long. He’s certainly made a believer out of this fan and I think that his valuable experience (albeit somewhat limited last year) will come into play greatly as we take the turn on a tougher schedule as the calendar hits 2010 in a few weeks.

Some more stats to hold you over until the full recap in the morning:

• Villanova had 8 less FTs than the Dead Hawks in the 1st Half
• Followed by 31 FTs in the second half, converting all but 1 (30)
• Villanova won the rebound battle 39 to 23
• Isaiah Armwood continues to prove quality over quantity (shooting 60% from the field on the season…..on 10 shots)
• VILLANOVA chants echoed throughout the Palestra loudly as the game came to a close

A shout out to the students who made the trip down to Philly for the game as they were very loud and made 100 or so fans sound more like 800 throughout the game.

One more Raftery quote on Taylor King to hold us over until tomorrow. . . .

“A little pick and pop…. oh is that honey?!?! AND MONEY!!!!!”

..ook fine 1 more…

“He’s becoming the answer! Anything deep is in his range!!” – The Raft

So help me God, if I see one pick for the bad guys from you guys, I’ll lose it Clark Griswold style. Anyways…

• On Game Day, I will post the official line we will be using for the game.
• In that thread, post your pick against-the-spread for the game that night.
• Make sure you use the same username for every pick (I know some of you are registered, if you aren’t this is a good reason to do so to make it easier). Also, make sure you provide your email so that I can contact the winner at the end of the year.
• Anonymous entries will not count.
• Entries posted after the game starts will not count.
• If you do not provide a pick for the game, it will be marked as a loss in the standings.
• If you are away and can’t make a pick in the thread, you can email me your pick. Email me at clane2787@gmail.com and I will try to email you back ASAP with the line (again, it must be emailed before the start of the game).
• The winner at the end of the year will win a prize (TBD) and I promise it will be something good. I’m not going to be lame like that. I’m searching eBay for cool Villanova stuff as we speak.
• In the event of a tie, the poster with the best BIG EAST record (regular season) wins. If still tied, the best Big 5 record wins. If still tied, the best OOC record wins. If still tied, we may have to do multiple prizes.

The official spread for the game is Villanova -13.5. Fire away!

The Game: #3 Villanova (8-0) at The Assholes from down the street (3-4)

The biggest asshole of all. Somebody just kill it already.

Location: The famed Palestra in Philadelphia, PA

Time: 9:00 p.m. ET

Broadcast: ESPN2

Brief Rundown: ‘Nova went into Washington D.C. and took care of Maryland in what many considered to be their toughest OOC game of the year. They held “star” guard Greivis Vasquez in check and rained 3-pointer after 3-pointer down upon the Terps’ heads in a 95-86 victory in what was a solid test for this young but talented team.

The Assholes, on the other hand, have lost 4 in a row to perennial powerhouses including DePaul, Rider, and Cornell. I don’t really have much else on them, because I honestly don’t care for them.

Villanova took last season’s War 59-56 in what was both a great comeback and a terribly blown lead by each team respectively. The Assholes last won this matchup in 2008, which was also the last time in was played at The Palestra.

What I Want To See: Idiot students crying in HD, Antonio Peña continuing his dominance down low, and our vaunted backcourt showing The Assholes their hind parts all night as they blow by them on the way to the hoop . And a 50-point win. But I’ll settle for any win. Put me on suicide watch if we lose.

Links:

• ESPN’s Preview

GameWatch Info:

• Pacific Northwest
• Manhattan
  
• Greater Philadelphia
• Atlanta
• Baltimore

…Lets Go Nova!…if you are local to one of the GameWatch’s I highly suggest attending as it is usually a good atmosphere…I’ll be at the Manhattan one if anyone wants to join…

I was thinking today about the last few seasons of Villanova hoops. Over my 4 years there I saw two great teams (2005-2006 and last year’s) as well as a team that exceeded my expectations (2007-2008) and one team who met my expectations (2006-2007). And then I began to think about the upcoming season, and what to expect from this year’s team.

After a productive summer, Fisher is ready for the big-time.

In my eyes, there are 5 distinct groups that we could split the team into:

Proven commodities:

• Scottie Reynolds, Reggie Redding

Guys who are ready for the spotlight:

• Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes

Guys who can make this team great:

• Antonio Peña, Taylor King

Newcomers:

• Mouphtaou Yarou, Dominic Cheek, Maalik Wayns, Isaiah Armwood, Maurice Sutton

Anything you get is gravy:

• Jason Colenda, Russell Wooten

I didn’t list King amongst the newcomers because he has played big-time college basketball before. If he can grasp the concept of Villanova basketball and doing the dirty work as well as provide the offense we know he’s capable of, he’s a guy, like Peña, who could bring us to the next level.

What’s most troubling to me though, is that we will be introducing 5 new guys to the rotation. Many people have said that Armwood may be looking at a redshirt year while Sutton may not yet be ready, but the frontline is pretty thin and if they can play hard and play good defense (we know Sutton can) then they will see some time.

But like any sport, chemistry is incredibly important. Especially for the team-style brand that Jay Wright preaches. The last two great ‘Nova teams had brilliant chemistry. Guys knew each other like family. So it’s not a stretch to say that there will be growing pains when introducing new faces, while counting on new players and become leaders (Fisher and Stokes) and while waiting for a true leader in Redding to return from suspension.

Our OOC schedule as it stands right now isn’t anything that will cause the team to lose sleep at night, but it does have some possible speedbumps that could turn us from a consensus Top 5 squad into a middle of the Top 25 squad. Looking over the schedule, 5 games have the potential to either be character-builders or struggles in the early going.

Puerto Rico will provide and early and stiff litmus test as to how this season could unfold. George Mason is never a pushover, but I still like our overall talent level to carry us through. The next round leaves Georgia Tech as a potential opponent. They’re a young team, but very, very talented and they have an experienced coach in Paul Hewitt. Should we make the finals, whoever we play will likely be a stiff test as well.

Beyond that, the BB&T Classic vs. Maryland in Washington D.C. may be listed as a neutral game, but I bet it plays more like a Maryland home game. Maryland is rapidly improving, and has always been a good program under Gary Williams. Plus, it seems like at least once every year they pull off a shocker. Not that beating us would be a shocker, but we could easily be in the Top 5 while they could be unranked.

And finally, the Holy War vs. St. Joe’s. I don’t think many people care as much about this game as they do, but that’s precisely what is worrisome. It’s the Super Bowl for the Hawks, and it will be played at The Palestra this year, where anything can happen.

In the end, I see Villanova getting through this portion of the year either unscathed or with 1 loss. But with Reggie Redding, there will be some learning curves.

What do you think about our OOC schedule?

Good vibe around campus today. I hit up the bookstore to snag some Final Four gear. Every conversation you hear revolves around this coming weekend. The feeling is contagious. I found myself talking to anyone who would engage with me. Good times.

Still trying to find one more ticket (for Liz) to the Final Four this weekend. Having a little more luck on some leads today, but the $500 prices aren’t exactly warming my bones. Here’s some reading for you.

• Frank Tchuisi doesn’t get the love from the press, but he has the respect and admiration of everyone else…Philadelphia Daily News (Mike Kern)
• Here’s a nice reminder of why we hate St. Joe’s. They have the worst little-brother complex I’ve ever seen…Philadelphia Inquirer (John Gonzalez)
• Jay Wright is the youngest and best looking of the Final Four coaches. And that’s why Roy Williams likes being around him. Ummmm?…Chicago Tribune
• Why can ‘Nova win it all? Because they’ve proved the doubters wrong before…Detroit Free Press
• Jay Wright is much more than just a sharp dresser…Comcast SportsNet
• Even the ‘Nova professors are feeling the madness…Philadelphia Inquirer (Derrick Nunnally)
• The Radnor Police are going over-abuse their power even more than normal this weekend…Philadelphia Inquirer (Mari. A Schaefer)
• Some random things about this weekend…Philadelphia Inquirer (Joe Juliano)
• The team hasn’t forgotten last year’s loss to Kansas in Detroit, and they don’t want to lose there again…Philadelphia Inquirer (Joe Juliano)
• Don’t mess with Assistant Coach Pat Chambers, the guy is an pitbull…Philadelphia Daily News (Dick Jerardi)
• Speedy Claxton isn’t surprised by Wright’s success…Philadelphia Daily News (Bernard Fernandez)

…Thanks to Brian for most of these…longest links post ever…