While many of you would like to just forget about the most recent poor performance by Villanova, I don’t think it is that simple. This group of Wildcats has some glaring weaknesses that need to be addressed. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for some), the next game is less than 48 hours away, so the time to really learn from the mistakes made against Pittsburgh is miniscule. Of course, the issues are not going to be fixed overnight, but I expect to see a much, much better game from the good guys on Wednesday night against a dangerous South Florida team. Another clunker will result in complete chaos for the Nova faithful. Anyways, we have no choice but to start focusing on the next game and hoping the Cats can right the ship. Below are some quotes from South Florida head coach Stan Heath’s Monday press conference following a tough home loss to the St. John’s Red Storm, which really put a damper on their NCAA Tournament hopes.
Opening Statement…
“We would like to put the last one behind us. It wasn’t a good performance, and I didn’t think our intensity level was there at all. I don’t think we worked as a team as well as we needed to, but welcome to the BIG EAST. We are not the only team that has probably had those same ups and downs during the year, and there is still a log jam of teams right where we are so this is a pivotal game. Villanova is coming off of two losses so they are not going to be a happy bunch of guys, and we just laid an egg so were not very happy either. We get to play on their on-campus facility which is a little bit different because it seats about five or six thousand people and they are all right on top of you. We will have to block that out and we will have to bring a much better defensive effort and a much better offensive performance and really get back to where we were a few weeks ago. ”
On whether it’s harder to prepare for Villanova because they haven’t played them all year…
“That is our league. We play three teams twice and the majority of the teams we just play once. I don’t think it is a plus or a minus. They are in the same boat as us, but they are awfully good. They know who they are, they know what they do and they have great leadership and experience out of Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher. It is a very defensive minded team that is aggressive and takes you out of what you want to do. Offensively, they know what they can and can’t do and they do things very well out there.”
On if he’s concentrating on just the perimeter game with Villanova…
“They force you to make some plays. The key is, and I thought Pittsburgh did a phenomenal job, is having some ball movement and player movement before you attack. You’re going to see trapping ball screens. You’re going to see switching on defense. You’re going to see a lot of things a lot of teams aren’t usually playing, simply because they have, I think, forward positions, the 3, 4 and 5, that are so interchangeable and so moveable that they can do things that are a little bit unconventional that you see. It’s a difficult team in a lot of ways. I look back on our film from last year, we played them wire to wire. It’s the last three, four minutes of the game, and we missed a layup, missed two 1-and-1’s. I think we missed an open shot. It’s still a game that within the last three minutes we had a legitimate chance to pull off, we just didn’t get through. I don’t look at them as way up here and we’re way down here. They’re a good, good team, but it’s a team that we’re going to prepare as hard as we can to try to steal a win. Hopefully we liken it to maybe a Georgetown situation, where we go into there as the underdog but we just come together, we grind it out, and we find a way to win.”
